


Second Chances

by WindRider01



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fanfic, Get Together, M/M, Mystery, Uses both animes and Manga, fma, obviously I worked with the plot bunny, royed, semi based on a dream
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-21
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2017-11-05 18:22:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindRider01/pseuds/WindRider01
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mysterious girl appears who looks just like Edward Elric, and she knows Roy's alchemy. Now Roy, Ed, and Al must discover who she is before the secret destroys them all. Roy/Ed. Uses both animes and the manga.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Second Chances

_"Where…"_

She could hear voices yelling back and forth at one another. One sounding quite arrogant, the other sounded as if he was going to beat him to a pulp. 

_"Who…?"_

Opening her eye a crack to see what was going on. She could just barely make out an older man across the room from her. He looked as if he was tied up, but she couldn't tell for sure her vision was blurry. 

_"Is that… blood…?"_

She saw patches of red on his face and chest. She could feel the anger building inside, it made her so mad that they dared lay a finger on him! She was also worried, wanting to run to him and make sure he was alright. But as hard as she tried she couldn't move from where she was.

Laughter soon filled her ears making her look up towards the sound. She caught a glimpse of a dark haired man with glasses before a bright bluish light engulfed everything. A panicked cry came from across the room, she caught the look of fear in the older man's face and eyes.

"Wait…!" she cried out waking herself seeing her hand stretched out into the air, like she was trying to reach out to the man in her dream. Panting heavily, covered in sweat, she just stared at her hand still held high above her. Did she know the man…? She must have, she was so angry and worried that he was hurt she has to know him. If only she could just remember…

Finally moving her hand down over her chest she tightly closed her eyes for a moment. All she could see was those terrified eyes looking back at her. Lifting herself off of the bed she made her way to the windowsill, sitting down to watch the early morning clouds move away allowing the sun to shine in.

  *   




"How long as she been up for?" a nurse asked nodding her head towards the room.

"She's been awake since I arrived at six" another nurse said glancing over at the room "Still in the same spot as she was this morning too… poor dear"

She sighed leaning her head against the cool glass as she looked out the window watching a nearby tree swaying in the wind. She could hear the ladies talking about her at the nurse's station across from her room, she wasn't deaf. Couldn't remember her name and or anything else yes, but she was most certainly not deaf.

"How you doing Kiddo?" a gentle voice from the doorway made her glance over and smile slightly, she was the head nurse in the hospital. She had to be in her early forty's, she had dark brown hair pulled back into a low bun and hazel green eyes.

"Hey Jennifer"

"Nightmare again?" Jennifer asked walking over tapping her on the head gently with her notepad.

She ducked down slightly smiling sheepishly "Could say that…"

"Do I need to prescribe you some sleeping pills hmm?" Jennifer sighed moving her notepad away from her head "You need your sleep hon"

"I know…" she said lowly looking out the window pulling her legs up to her chest.

Jennifer sat down across from her in the windowsill and placed a gentle hand on her knee "Kiddo, this dream might be a clue to what happened"

"But I don't like it" she mumbled keeping her gaze out the window.

"I know you don't honey, but it might help figure out who you are" Jennifer sighed as she watched her continue to look out the window. For the three days she's been with them, she always seemed to be off in her own little world.

"Jennifer!" one of the other nurses called out as she ran to the door sounding urgent "We need you in room 35!"

"I'm on my way" Jennifer sighed getting up from the windowsill, she knew perfectly well it was Mr. Hunter having one of his childish fits. And she was unfortunately the only one who could put an end to them "I'll be right back Jane" she left the room quickly after the other nurse.

'Jane' wrinkled her nose at the name they had given her, she knew they had to name her something and not just keep going 'hey you!'. Going to look back out the window she noticed Jennifer left her notepad on the sill. She glanced out the door before picking the pad up flipping a few pages finding a blank one. Taking the pen from the metal clip at the top she started to draw, what she wasn't sure, but her hand seemed to know what it was doing.

"I swear if that man doesn't smarten up…" Jennifer groaned as she walked back into Jane's room after a long half-hour of calming Mr. Hunter down. "Sorry I took so long-"she paused mid sentence seeing Jane drawing on her notepad not even realizing she came back into the room. She had such a serious look on her face, drawing whatever it was.

Jennifer walked over to Jane to investigate just what she was drawing. Jane didn't even realize she was now standing next to her, watching her draw what appeared to be an alchemy array. Jennifer only knew about alchemy really from her husband, who used it from time to time. But this was different, it wasn't any normal array. It was more complicated then what her husband drew.

Jane tilted her head to the side with the end of the pen on her chin, she looked at the array she just drew deep in thought.

"Looks like you know alchemy" Jennifer said making Jane jump startled.

"I um…! Sorry!" Jane quickly handed her the notepad with the pen on top, she moved her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees.

Jennifer couldn't help but laugh as Jane looked terrified as if she was going to get scolded. "No, no it's fine my dear" she smiled flipping her notepad pages to find the page… or rather pages Jane had drawn on. Some of them had alchemy arrays on them, while others had sketches of people on them "Maybe I should get a notepad of your own to draw on, might help you remember" she could tell Jane was remembering something, they all seemed to be sketches of the same man.

"Still sorry…" Jane looked down at her toes half playing with them through her socks "It was just sitting on the windowsill and… I just couldn't resist you know?"

"I'm not angry with you" Jennifer chuckled and ruffled up Jane's hair making sure to be careful not to hit the lump on her head, which is probably the cause of her losing her memory.

"Kay…" Jane nodded a little still looking at her feet.

"Mind if I keep them?" Jennifer asked her getting confused look from Jane.

"They aren't really good… just doodles" Jane couldn't understand why she'd want them.

"Well I love your doodles and tomorrow I'll get you a notepad of your own to draw with" Jennifer couldn't help but smile seeing Jane look so happy, she hasn't really smiled since arriving.

"Thank you" Jane couldn't help but feel excited about getting something of her own.

"Now don't go stealing someone else's notepad to draw on" Jennifer smirked, watching Jane nod quickly.

"Promise! I'll be good!" Jane quickly blurted out without a second thought, this only made Jennifer grin as she left the room.

  *   




"Daniel sweetheart, I want you to look at something for me" Jennifer said to her husband who just walked into the door from a long day at work.

Daniel knew that look on his wife's face all too well "Don't tell me you've brought 'home' something from work again"

Jennifer rolled her eyes at her husband before handing him some papers "Do you recognize any of these?"

Daniel just barely managed to hang up his jacket before he was handed the papers. He was about to ask what he was looking for when he noticed the alchemy arrays "What's this…?"

"I was hoping you could tell me" Jennifer said crossing her arms watching her husband looking over them.

"I've never seen anything like these…" Daniel was impressed, sure he knew alchemy but nothing as complex "Where did you get these?"

"A young woman who was admitted into the hospital three days ago, the poor dear doesn't remember anything" Jennifer explained as she noticed him stop on a page seeming to be studying it "I happened to leave my notepad in her room and she drew these" she paused waiting for him to respond but he didn't say anything "something catch your eye?"

"Oh sorry…" Daniel said glancing up at Jennifer with an apologetic smile "And you could say some did, one looks awfully familiar"

"Really? Maybe it's a clue to who she is" Jennifer really did want to know the poor girls name, her family must be worried sick about her.

"Yes, and maybe… I think I know just the man to ask about these" Daniel smiled leaning in closer to his wife giving her a kiss. "Now where's dinner? I'm starved"

Jennifer laughed kissing her husband back "Always such the charmer"

  *   




"I'd like to see Colonel Roy Mustang"

Everyone in the office suddenly jumped to their feet to salute all yelling out in unison "General Ellis Sir!"

General 'Daniel' Ellis managed to stifle a laugh, he did love it when the lower ranks almost jumped out of their skin. "At ease"

They all lowered their hands and a few glanced over at one another nervously unsure of why he stopped by.

"May I ask why you've come to see me General Ellis?" Roy made his way over from his desk. It was unusual for a General to be stopping by his office.

"Ah Colonel Mustang" General Ellis smiled reaching out to shake his hand "You look like you're doing well"

"Same to you Sir" Roy smiled shaking his hand back.

"Oh yes, I was hoping you could help me with these" General Ellis dug into his jacket pocket, unfolding the papers before handing them over to Roy to examine. "I found them quite interesting and they looked familiar to me. You were the first one I thought of, I knew you'd probably have an easier time recognizing them then I would"

Roy took the papers unsure what he was going to find, that was until he saw the alchemy arrays on them. "Where did you get these…?" he couldn't help but find them familiar himself, but he couldn't quite place his finger on where.

"My wife actually, she is the head nurse at the hospital. She told me a young lady had drawn them on her notepad she accidentally left in her room" General Ellis watched Roy's expression change looking serious as he examined a page very carefully. He glanced around the papers to see what he was looking at and couldn't help but chuckle "I paused at that same page"

Roy just barley nodded as he looked at an all too familiar array staring back at him. It was his flame array, the one stitched onto his gloves. "Why bring them-"

"Because we cannot ask the young lady who drew them" General Ellis cut Roy off mid sentence earning him an odd look "She lost her memory Colonel, but somehow she knows these complex alchemy arrays"

Roy looked back down at the papers in his hands, looking over each page one more time before finally speaking "I'll see what I can do"

"Much appreciated Colonel" General Ellis nodded as he turned to leave.

"General Ellis, one other thing" Roy watched the General turn towards him with his arms behind his back "Who would I be asking for, that is if I wanted to talk to her"

The General couldn't help but laugh, he should have expected this "Just ask for my wife Jennifer the head nurse and tell her I sent you"

"Thank you Sir" Roy saluted as he watched General Ellis leave the office. He couldn't help but start to observe the arrays again, wondering back over to his desk.

"What are you going to do? Try and pick up girls from the hospital now?" Havoc suddenly piped up.

Roy shot Havoc a glare "No, but it might work for you" he couldn't help but smirk as Havoc let out a small protest before plopping back down at his desk. Looking back down at the papers in his hands trying to figure them out, the more he wished Fullmetal was around to help him. Not that he couldn't on his own, just an extra pair of eyes would help move it along all that much faster.

"You can look at those later Sir" Hawkeye said suddenly next to Roy making him look up at her. "Work first" she motioned her hands towards the piles of paper work still on his desk.

"Right…" Roy couldn't help but let out a sigh, he really did not want to work right now. He had much more important papers to be looking at. He quickly folded them up placing them into his uniform coat before Hawkeye got the chance to give him a warning shot from her gun.

Looking up at the wall clock, Roy groaned to himself as he still had another three hours locked up in the office. But once he was 'free' so to speak he was going to be paying this girl a visit.


	2. Chapter 2

"Excuse me, Miss?"

"Hmm? Yes, what can I do for you?" the nurse was half paying attention while organizing a heap of paper work.

"I'm here to see Jennifer, the head nurse"

"That would be me" a voice said walking over with clipboard in hand, placing it down onto the desk. She noticed right away his navy blue military uniform, and thanks to her husband she knew how to tell what rank he was "What can I do for you Colonel…?"

"Mustang, Roy Mustang" Roy tried not to smirk as he heard the nurse behind the desk gasp and almost drop the papers she had in hand. "Your Husband sent me"

"Oh! You were the one he brought the papers too" Jennifer leaned over the desk grabbing another clipboard "So you've come to see Jane then?"

Roy nodded as he watched her flipping through the papers on the clipboard she just picked up "If it's not too much trouble"

"No trouble at all" Jennifer smiled and motioned for Roy to follow her "I'm sure my husband told you about her losing her memory" She glanced up at Roy watching him nod to show he was listening "So we all decided to call her Jane, she doesn't like the name overly much and doesn't always respond" she laughed as they got to the doorway to Jane's room. "But that goes without saying"

Jennifer walked into the room while Roy stood in the doorway glancing around. He saw nothing out of the ordinary inside, it was just your average everyday hospital room.

"Jane?" Jennifer walked over to the windowsill, which Jane decided was her favorite spot to be. She couldn't help but let out a sigh, again Jane was so absorbed into what she was drawing she blocked out the rest of the world. "I'm starting to regret giving you that notepad you know"

Roy couldn't help but laugh from the doorway, Jennifer wasn't lying when she said Jane didn't always respond. "Not having any luck getting her attention?"

"You have no idea" Jennifer turned towards Roy and shrugged "Well, she's all yours if you can" she walked over giving him a pat on the shoulder "Good luck" was all she said leaving the room.

Roy watched Jennifer leave before looking back into the room seeing Jane sitting in the windowsill. She had her legs pulled up close to her chest, allowing her to use them to hold the notepad she was drawing on. He couldn't quite see her face, it was hidden behind her blonde hair.

He walked over deciding to take a seat across from her at the windowsill, hoping it would help him gain her attention. "Jane?" he waited a moment and he too didn't get a response.

Tilting his head to the side trying to see her face, he noticed she stopped drawing. This was his chance! "Jane? I've come to see about these arrays you've drawn"

"Hmm?" Jane looked up from her notepad expecting to see Jennifer, but instead she saw a man in a navy blue uniform sitting across from her.

Roy was about to speak, but the words died instantly in his mouth. He thought he was staring Edward back in the face. Her hair was a lighter shade from his yes, but the way it sat near her face was almost the exact same. Even her eyes and face had the same shape as Edwards. The only differences being her eyes are a grayish blue, not gold.

"What…?" Jane blinked at Roy wondering why he was looking at her like that.

Roy couldn't help but to stare, the likeness was un-canning. Did the brothers have a sister they never told him about? She HAD to be an Elric.

"Um…" Jane glanced over at the door wondering if she should call for Jennifer. This guy starting at her like that was starting to make her uneasy.

"Pardon?" Roy blinked now noticing the bandage around her head, along with the unsure look on her face "I'm sorry, you look like Edward"

Jane raised an eyebrow slightly while giving Roy an odd look "Are you saying I look like a guy?"

"What? Wait no! That's not what I meant!" Roy quickly blurted out and silently cursed to himself for saying his previous statement out loud.

"Oh, your glove!" Jane dropped her notepad against the window crossing her legs leaning over close grabbing Roy's hand.

Roy was a bit startled by her sudden movement but glad he got out of having to explain how she definitely didn't look like a boy.

"I draw this one" Jane held Roy's hand gently as she observed the stitched array on his glove.

"That's actually what I've come to talk to you about" Roy said watching her observing his glove, running her finger over the array lightly.

"Why, are you mad I drew it?" Jane asked never looking away from his hand.

"No, I'm not mad that you drew it" Roy chuckled "I'm more curious on how you know of it"

"I don't know, I think the man I see in my dreams showed me" Jane leaned back keeping her gentle hold on his hand, running her thumb over the stitching "I wish I could tell you, but I don't remember. I can't even give you my real name"

Roy saw the sad look on her face and felt the need to want to comfort her "Just give it some time" he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

Jane looked up at Roy and smiled a little "Thank you, um…" she wasn't sure if he told her his name or not.

"It's Roy Mustang" Roy couldn't help but smile, she was still holding onto his hand so tenderly. "Do you remember what this man looked like?" he couldn't help but be curious.

"Not really, I never see his full face…" Jane looked back down at Roy's hand she was still holding "He's an older man, think his hair was gray and or graying… I get a feeling deep down he's family"

"What makes you think that?" Roy moved slightly to see her face, her bangs were hiding her face again.

"Because…because…" Jane bit her lip going quiet for a moment "I was so angry and worried all at the same time when I saw him hurt, and the way he called out for me…" she trailed off, glancing out the window.

Roy just stayed silent watching her looking out the window, he didn't want to pressure her anymore on what else she could remember. The last thing he wanted to do was to make her upset.

"Hey Roy…"

"Yes Jane?"

Jane wrinkled her nose as Roy called her by that name "Will you come back…?" she looked up at him with pleading eyes "I mean… I might remember something" she just really wanted him to come back, it was odd, she felt like she knew him.

Roy couldn't help but laugh a little, the expression on her face was too cute "Of course I'll come back, hopefully one day in the near future you'll be able to tell me your real name" He really did want to know it, he had to know who she was and this older man who taught her these arrays.

Jane smiled up at Roy and nodded "Yeah!"

* * *

"Are you going to see this mystery girl again?" Havoc teased watching Roy slipping on his coat. Roy has gone to see her every day after work for over a week now.

"I won't find out anything if I don't" Roy replied turning to head out the door but found Ed standing in front of him.

"What mystery girl?" Ed crossed his arms looking more annoyed than usual.

"Fullmetal! When did you get back?" Roy didn't know he came back today, or did he forget? No matter Ed was here now.

"An hour ago" Ed rolled his eyes at him "I take it you have a stupid Date"

"It's not a date" Roy corrected him and couldn't help but start to smile "Actually… I'd like you to meet her"

Ed blinked up at Roy confused "Uh… why?"

"You'll see why once we get there" Roy smirked walking past Ed, patting Al on the arm "come on, you too Alphonse"

"Huh?" Al looked over at Ed who looked back just as confused.

"Hurry up you two" Roy called from the hallway.

Ed growled making his way to where Roy stood waiting "Just what makes you think we are just going to go and-!" Ed was quickly silenced as Roy held out a small pile of papers in front of his face. He blinked at them a moment before snatching them from Roy to get a better look.

The pages were full of different alchemy arrays, a handful he recognized and knew. However a few of them he didn't know at all, but in some strange way they seemed familiar. Whoever drew these was a genius!

Al couldn't help but observe them over his brother "Where did you get these Colonel?"

"You'll see" was all Roy said as he started down the hallway making the boys move quickly to keep up with him.

* * *

"Jennifer has he-"

"No, Roy hasn't come yet" Jennifer couldn't help but laugh. Jane has been coming in and out of her room to check almost every five minutes now looking for him. She always looks forward to his visits every day.

"He probably got bored of you" one of the other nurses nearby said with the hint of annoyance and jealously in her voice.

"What do you mean?" Jane asked confused.

"Don't pay her any mind Jane, she's just jealous he isn't coming to see her" Jennifer glanced over at the other nurse giving her a stern glare.

"But she doesn't talk to him" Jane blinked even more confused than she was.

Jennifer burst into laughter as the other nurse let out a 'hmph…!' before storming off to another part of the hospital. Jane was a bit blunt, but what she said was true.

Jane was about to ask why the other nurse was mad, but then she spotted a familiar black coat and navy blue uniform "Roy!" she yelled out excitedly running over to give him a big hug.

Roy was taken by surprise, Jane has never done this before. "Am I late?" He laughed and couldn't help but find it adorable.

Ed and Al exchanged glances at one another unsure why they were at the hospital. Roy didn't exactly tell them anything on the way. Why would they be seeing a girl at the hospital anyway, weren't they going to see the person who drew these arrays?

"No, okay maybe just a little" Jane smiled up at Roy as she pulled away. Then noticing another boy and someone in a suit of armor standing on either side of him "Oh, hello!"

"H-hi" was all Al managed to say, he couldn't help but notice the similarities between her and his brother.

Ed just nodded a hello, placing his hands in his pockets. Giving her a once over, she didn't look overly special.

"Boys this is Jane, she is the one who drew those arrays I showed you on the way" Roy moved so he was now standing beside her so she could get a good look at them "Jane this is Alphonse" he gestured over to the one on the right "and his older brother Edward"

Jane smiled up at Al "Nice to meet you Al" she looked over at Ed about to say hello to him too. But his eyes caught her attention making her gasp, those familiar bright golden eyes looking back at her.

" _Those eyes… they look just like…"_ the tears started to slowly to build up, all she could see was those terror filled eyes staring back at her.

"What…?" Ed blinked at her wondering if she was alright, she got quiet all of a sudden.

"Jane?" Roy looked down at her noticing she was practically staring over at Ed.

Jane blinked at them coming back from her thoughts, feeling light headed "I…um… what?" she smiled slightly and rubbed the back of her head "Sorry, just I know your eyes… um more so the color" she felt a bit silly for saying it. He wasn't the older man in her dreams, but the eyes looked identical.

"You've seen someone else with the same color eyes?" Ed could only assume it was his bastard of a father she was referring too. He couldn't help but let out a snarl at the thought.

"Um…" Jane wasn't sure if she should say anything else, Ed didn't look overly happy about it.

"Where do you remember seeing them?" Al asked before Roy got the chance too. She looked so sad when her eyes locked with his brothers.

Jane glanced up at Roy a moment before looking up at Al. "This man in my dreams… he has the same color eyes"

"In your dreams?" Ed was confused, just what was she talking about? "Mustang what the hell is going on?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Would you boys mind taking this outside?"

The four of them looked over at the nurse station, Jennifer didn't look overly pleased.

"Does that mean I can go with them?" Jane asked sounding hopeful, she really wanted to go outside.

"No, you'll be waiting in here for them to get back" Jennifer pointed over to a small bench to the right "Park your butt over there"

"But…! I'll be right back!" Jane protested starting to pout "I'm not a little kid, and I won't be alone!"

"Don't make me repeat myself" Jennifer said in a voice that made the hair on the back of their necks stand on end.

Jane let out a small 'Ep!' before dashing over to the bench sitting down quickly "I'm sitting! I'm being good!" she never heard that tone of voice with Jennifer before, and she wasn't about to find out the outcome if she didn't do as she was told.

"We shouldn't be too long" Roy reassured her, he turned around taking Ed by the flesh arm pulling him towards the door.

"Hey!" Ed half shouted in surprise, Roy was practically dragging him out of the hospital!

"You're the one who got us in trouble!" Roy growled at Ed as he continued to drag him down the hallway.

"What the hell did I do?"

"What you do best, YELLING"

"So sorry about this…" Al bowed to Jennifer apologizing for his brother. They could still hear Roy and Ed still bickering to one another down the hallway.

"Just tell him to use his 'indoor' voice when he comes back in" Jennifer sighed, he most certainly had a troublesome brother.

"I'll tell him… doesn't mean he'll listen" Al laughed nervously rubbing the back of his head. He took one last look at Jane before running off to catch up to his brother and the Colonel.

"You have an interesting group of boys coming to see you" Jennifer said walking out from behind the desk "I need to go check up on a few patients" she paused to take a look over at Jane, she was sitting on the bench looking up at her "And you BETTER still be sitting on that bench when I get back, no excuses young lady"

"I'm sitting on the bench like a good girl!" Jane half squeaked out terrified of the wrath she might unleash upon on her.

Jennifer grinned, her husband was right, scaring people was fun "Good to hear, now I'll be back soon" she turned taking a clipboard with her down the hallway.

* * *

Ed pulled his arm away from Roy letting out a huff once they were outside "stupid Colonel Bastard!" how dare he drag him out like a child!

"I don't see why you're so angry with me" Roy sighed, why was Edward always so vocal? He was starting to think he didn't have a quiet bone in his body.

"You're the one who dragged me outside!" Ed crossed his arms glaring up at Roy.

"It doesn't matter now does it? We are outside now so we can talk" Roy looked down at Ed seeing his face was a bit pink, was he blushing?

"Oh that's right!" Ed was so mad at Roy dragging him out, he had almost completely forgotten why they came in the first place "who the hell is she?"

"And why does she look like Ed?" Al asked getting an odd look from his brother.

"You've noticed it too?" Roy should have guessed Al would have, he was very observant, unlike his brother.

"How couldn't you? They look almost identical" Al looked down at Ed who was rolling his eyes.

"Look she doesn't-!" Ed started to yell, but was quickly silenced by the glares coming from Al and Roy "Whatever, just who is she?"

"No one knows, she doesn't even know" Roy placed his hands into his pockets seeing the confused look on Ed's face "She lost her memory Fullmetal, we've been calling her Jane in the meantime until she remembers hers"

"Then how did you find out about her?" Ed couldn't help but ask.

"General Ellis, his wife had brought him home those papers I showed you. She had accidently left her notepad with Jane and came back to find pages riddled with arrays" Roy explained "He gave them to me after noticing my alchemy array in amongst the others"

"How and why would she know yours?" Ed scratched his head even more confused that he previously was.

Roy sighed "That's the problem. All she's told me is that an older man showed them to her, and him having your eye color is new"

"She probably just remembered, I'm sure she would have told you sooner" Al doubted she would have kept that from Roy, she was so happy to see him.

"That is possible…" Roy brought one of his hands to his chin deep in thought. It wasn't uncommon for someone to remember memories from objects or people.

"Well, we won't find out anything else by standing out here. We need to go back in and ask her" he turned taking a step towards the door but was stopped by a hand on his flesh shoulder.

"Fullmetal, we need to be careful when asking her" Roy said firmly making sure he had Ed's full attention "What little she remembers isn't anything good"

Ed stopped with his hand over Roy's about to move it "What do you mean?"

"Jane told me that he was hurt, never says how, but by the reaction I get from her it isn't good" Roy didn't want Ed to make her upset.

"That would explain why she looked so sad" Al really hoped that this man she was talking about was okay.

Ed batted Roy's hand away with a grumble "I won't make her cry if that's what you're implying"

"Of course not" Roy said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice "Let's just go back inside, I'm sure she's wondering where we've gotten too" he moved past Ed and held open the door for them.

Ed paused in front of the door giving Roy a small glare before walking inside. Al followed quickly after with Roy not far behind.

"I can't help but wonder why she looks like Ed…" Al said as they walked through the hallway.

"For the last time she doesn't look like me!" Ed growled throwing his arms into the air angrily, he was quickly shushed by Al.

"That nurse will get mad at you again!" Al sighed "And what do you mean? She looks JUST like you!"

"Except she has a lighter shade of blonde and gray blue eyes" Roy pointed out making the brothers turn to him "I couldn't help but notice" Roy shrugged with a smile, he didn't dare mention he thought that she was Ed the first time they met.

Ed crossed his arms, rolling his eyes "of course YOU would notice something like that" he couldn't help but frown, he was so mad and annoyed with him. Roy seemed too interested in this 'Jane'.

"She is a pretty girl Fullmetal" Roy couldn't help but smirk, were his eyes deceiving him? Or was Fullmetal jealous?

"Stupid Bastard…" Ed muttered under his breath turning away.

"Your back!" Jane happily shouted out once she saw them coming down the hallway.

"Hope we didn't take too long" Roy smiled glancing over at Ed who still had his face turned away from him. He did however catch a faint blush over his cheeks.

Jane shook her head and smiled "Nope!" she was about to get up from the bench but stopped. Jennifer wasn't back yet, the boys were, so it would be fine, right? "We can talk in my room like we usually do, um if that's okay with Ed and Al"

"Not a problem" Al nodded and nudged his brother with his arm.

"Your room is fine" Ed mumbled out rubbing the back of his head, turning his face forward to get another look at her. He didn't see the resemblance to himself at all, just what were Mustang and his brother talking about?

Jane nodded, hopping up from the bench and going into the door to the right. They all walked into the room after her.

"Did this guy have long blonde hair? Was it pulled back in a high ponytail?" Ed suddenly asked once fully inside the room.

Roy shot him a small glare "What did I tell you outside?"

"What? I'm just asking a question" Ed blinked, he didn't ask anything major.

"No he didn't" Jane said softly as she walked over to the windowsill, she picked up one of the notepads sitting on the sill "He had short gray hair"

Ed sighed with relief glad it wasn't who he thought it was "Wait… you said he had gold eyes. Are you sure they were that color?"

"Yes, just like yours" Jane glanced over at Ed looking a bit hurt "You don't believe me?"

"N-no! Just… uh…" Ed glanced around the room trying to figure out what to say, he did not want to make her upset.

"It's just a rare eye color that's all" Al said quickly covering up for his brother. Ed looked up at Al silently thanking him for saving his 'butt' so to speak.

"Oh… but he really does have gold eyes, honest" Jane held the notepad close to her chest and glanced down at the floor.

"No one in here thinks you're lying Jane" Roy said gently. He didn't like it when she looked away like that, she looked like a scared little child.

Ed blinked over at Roy, he never heard him speak so low and gentle before. Not that he didn't think he could, the bastard was known for being quite the womanizer. But he still couldn't help but silently wish he got to hear that voice more often, wait… what was he thinking?

Al looked down at Ed when he heard a strange noise coming from him, his cheeks were flushed again and he looked annoyed. His brother was sure acting oddly today…

"Do you remember anything else about him?" Al hoped he wasn't asking too much of her.

Jane shook her head "No, sorry…" she looked up at Al and smiled slightly "That's all I can remember so far, besides him feeling like family"

"Family, huh…?" Ed crossed his arms frowning, she HAD to be talking about his Father. No one else had gold eyes except them and that bastard. But she said he had short gray hair… it didn't make any sense.

"Sounds weird, huh…?" Jane wasn't sure if she said something wrong again, Ed didn't look happy again. "It's just a feeling in my gut that he's family, especially when… before…" she trailed off remembering seeing his terrified eyes after the glowing blue light.

"Jane, you okay?" Al asked taking a mental note of the pair almost sounding alike when they both added a 'huh…?' at the end of what they were saying.

Jane nodded "I'm fine, just…I keep picturing his scared face" she let out a small sniffle rubbing one of her eyes.

The three of them all quickly exchanged worried looks to one another, the last thing they wanted to do was make her upset. "We could stop with the questions-"

"I'm fine, really" Jane nodded clearing her throat "Don't worry about me" she took a deep breath to calm herself down not to cry.

"Are you sure? We can stop…" Roy watched Jane nod and smile up at him.

"Mm…! I'm fine" Jane put on a brave face for the boys, she hated getting upset "It's a bit fuzzy, but the last thing I remember is him calling out for me. And before I wake up I see his terrified face"

"Do you know what happened…?" Ed took a chance to ask, he knew Mustang was going to yell at him for it. But he was curious and had to know.

Jane shook her head "Not really… but I think there is another man in the room. I could hear two voices yelling at one another before something happened" she took the note pad away from her chest and opened it. She flipped a few pages before finding what she was looking for "I know it's not great… but, this is all I can remember of him" she turned the pad around towards them so they could see.

The three of them came in closer to take a look. They only saw half his face, from his nose up it was shaded in. All that they could tell was this man had short dark hair and wore glasses. He looked pretty sinister from the few head shots she drew. It was odd how they all seemed to be angled as if you were looking up at him.

"Mind if we keep this?" Roy knew that it didn't show the man's full face, but it might still help identify him. Deep down he got a feeling that she might have been kidnapped, they just need to know why.

"Um… I guess so? I basically drew on every page already, give or take a few pages" Jane handed over the pad to Roy who started to flip threw some more pages. "Jennifer bought me a new one the other day, she saw this one was getting full"

Ed and Al observed a few pages along with Roy. She had so many arrays, it was unreal. Even Ed's book he took notes in didn't even come close to what she had. It was amazing that she could remember all of these, but nothing of her past. Amnesia sure worked in weird ways.

"You really like to draw" Al couldn't help but think it was also because she had nothing else to do while staying in the hospital.

"Yup, that I do!" Jane grinned "Guess it's a hobby of mine? I mean besides drawing the alchemy arrays. I do draw people and other things too"

If Al was human his jaw would have dropped, she just grinned EXACTLY like Ed! Of course, as luck would have it his brother and the Colonel both completely missed it.

"Jane?" a woman's voice called from the hallway "I thought I told you not to move young lady!"

"I'm in my room with Roy, Ed and Al!" Jane quickly yelled back praying she wouldn't get angry. She didn't move until they arrived… but she might not believe her.

Jennifer walked to the doorway with her arms crossed glancing at the four of them in the room "But you did move"

"Not until they came back" Jane looked up at Roy silently pleading for help.

"She only got up from the bench after we came back in, isn't that right boys?" Roy gave a smile as both boys nodded.

"Hmm… I guess I'll believe you this time" Jennifer chuckled at their scared faces "Well boys, it's time for you to go"

"Awwww… can't they stay a little longer?" Jane started to pout, she didn't want them to leave.

"I'm sorry Jane, rules are rules. But I'm sure they'll come back tomorrow" Jennifer sighed, she couldn't go around giving exceptions.

"We'll be back tomorrow" Roy smiled giving Jane's hair a light ruffle messing it up.

"Heeey!" Jane laughed starting to fix it so it wasn't all over the place.

Al couldn't help but think that was so cute, Roy was being so nice and kind to Jane. Ed on the other hand rolled his eyes thinking Roy was just being his stupid flirty self.

"Hopefully earlier tomorrow" Roy said walking out of the room. He couldn't really promise they would, Hawkeye is quite the slave driver.

"Knowing how you work, doubtful" Ed smirked getting a small glare from Roy.

Jane laughed and nodded "Okay, and it was nice meeting you two"

"Likewise" Al nodded nudging his brother in the side, honestly if it wasn't for him Ed wouldn't even seem civil.

"Yeah, same" Ed half mumbled out shoving his hands into his pockets.

"See you tomorrow Jane" Roy half waved turning to head down the hallway.

"C-ya tomorrow!" Jane waved to the boys who waved back as they headed down the hallway.

"You've gotten awfully quiet Fullmetal" Roy leaned forward to see Ed's face. It was unlike him to suddenly go silent.

"Can't a guy think?" Ed shot Roy a glare.

Roy couldn't help but start to grin down at Ed "Oh, what's this? Could it be that Fullmetal is jealous?"

Ed blinked up at Roy completely confused "Huh? No! Why the hell would I be?"

"No reason at all, just you getting flustered quite a bit inside" Roy grinned, watching Ed get angrier at him.

"What the hell are you talking about Mustang?" Ed roared snatching the note pad away from him "Stupid Colonel! And I'll take that!" with that he stormed off out the door, muttering curse words as he went.

"… I wish you wouldn't rile him up Colonel..." Al sighed, it was going to be a loooong night hearing his brother rant and rave about how stupid Roy is.


	4. Chapter 4

Al was thankful the notepad kept Ed from ranting and raving about the Colonel all night. Let alone raging on about how he always seems to just pick on him, which was true, Roy did like to pick on Ed.

The pair talked for hours about a handful that caught their attention the most. Ed ended up falling asleep on the papers, Al had to save them before Ed started to drool on them. Al carefully moved his brother to the couch placing a blanket over him, before going back to continue to look at the other imagines on the pad while his brother slept.

"Brother…" Al nudged Ed trying to wake him at noon the next day. Ed mumbled something incoherent before turning his head to the other side "You need to get up now Ed, and I made you some lunch"

"wassit?" Ed mumbled cracking an eye open at the mention of food.

Al sighed "does it matter what I made for you to eat?"

Ed nodded with a large yawn "Yes…"

"I somehow doubt you're picky over food" Al snickered hearing Ed let out a small snort before he sat up stretching "I was looking at some of her other drawings last night"

"Find anything interesting?" Ed asked with another yawn rubbing one of his eyes, trying to wake himself up.

"A few, she does draw that man a lot" Al walked to the kitchen with a sleepy Ed in toe "Too bad she didn't draw his face…"

"That creepy looking guy with the dark hair?" Ed plopped himself down on a chair at the kitchen table waiting for food.

"No, I'm guessing he's the one who showed her those arrays?" Al placed Ed's lunch in front of him, along with his glass of juice "He has lighter hair, not dark like the man she showed us yesterday. Speaking of which, the Colonel I do believe wanted the notepad for that reason"

"Oh… heh, my bad" Ed rubbed the back of his head smiling sheepishly, he did sort of steal it from him. But the man was so infuriating yesterday, saying he was jealous, what a load of bull!

"You really shouldn't be like that with him" Al really wished those two would get along.

"But he starts it!" Ed exclaimed, it only earned him a glare from Al "Okay, so sometimes I start it…" he muttered starting to eat his lunch.

* * *

"Sir, the boys are here" Hawkeye said placing an arm full of papers onto Roy's desk.

"Oh good, send them in" Roy leaned back in his chair as Hawkeye left to tell the boys to come into the office.

"Brought the notepad with us" Ed waved it in his hand walking over with Al following behind "I'd like to say we figured some stuff out, but I think we have more questions than answers at the moment"

"Is that so?" Roy watched Ed flip a few pages walking around his desk. Once he was standing next to him he placed the notepad down onto it, pointing at an array.

"Like this one for example, it's all wrong" Ed tapped at the array with his finger "I mean, it IS an array, but there is no way it could ever work" he moved his finger along one of the more important looking lines "See, this should be completely opposite then how it's drawn here. Not to mention right side up, she has it drawn upside down"

Roy studied the array a moment, Ed was right, that array would never work "Why would she even draw something like this?" this was turning into an even bigger mystery then it already was.

"We dunno, I was up most the night trying to figure the damn thing out. It doesn't make any sense" Ed glared down at the paper, he was angry and frustrated with the stupid thing. He hated not knowing something, it drove him insane.

"The only thing we came up with, before Ed fell asleep, was that man she keeps mentioning must have shown it to her" Al said watching both Roy and Ed glaring down at the paper.

"But he should know it won't work, so why bother drawing it out in the first place?" Roy narrowed his eyes down at the paper in thought. He was having second thoughts about this genius of a man, he might not be as good as they think he is.

Ed sighed "That's the thing, why even show it to her" he paused biting his lip slightly pondering a moment "Not unless maybe she remembers it wrong?" he looked down at Roy awaiting an answer.

"Perhaps… but I'm not so sure about that" Roy really hated thinking ill of the man, but it there was a slim change it could be true. But Jane didn't seem like a bad person at all.

"Um, would you mind if we kept a few pages from the notepad?" Ed was actually feeling bad for stealing it from him yesterday.

"Not at all" Roy smiled up at Ed taking note he seemed to be trying to be nice "Just make sure to leave me with the page with the darker haired man"

Ed nodded picking up the pad taking a handful of pages "So are we heading to see Jane now? Or do we need to wait longer till you finish your work?" he pointed down at the piles of paper work on Roy's desk.

"A little while…" Roy sighed taking a look at just how many piles were on his desk "I shouldn't be any longer than a half hour"

"Right, we'll come back in an hour" Ed grinned folding the papers into his jacket pocket.

* * *

"Can I help with anything?" Jane asked leaned against the counter on her elbows, trying to see what Jennifer was up too.

"You're bored aren't you?" Jennifer gave a small sigh "I'm sorry Jane but there is nothing you can do, besides you're a patient remember?"

"But, isn't there anything I can do? And I'm only a patient because I can't remember who I am. I'm still capable of helping out, I can move stuff or something" Jane was beyond bored, she couldn't and honestly didn't feel like drawing today.

"For the last time Jane, I have nothing for you to do" Jennifer was starting to get slightly annoyed, not that she didn't appreciate Jane wanting to help. Just she is a patient and patients didn't exactly do those things.

Jane sighed pushing away from the counter, still keeping a hold on it leaning back "Can I take a walk around the hospital then?"

"If it keeps you out of my hair for an hour, Yes" Jennifer caught the grin creeping up on Jane's face "If I find out you went outside, you'll get in big trouble young lady"

"I wouldn't dream of going out, it's too cold…" To tell the truth Jane really wanted to go outside so badly, being cooped up inside the hospital was making her stir crazy.

"Good, also if you take too long I'm going to personally come looking for you" Jennifer hid her grin as she saw the worried look on Jane's face "Now get going you, and stay out of trouble"

"Like I'd get into trouble" Jane laughed standing up straight letting go of the counter.

Upon turning around a small blur ran past her, making her blink confused a moment before looking to see just what it was. It appeared to be a small four year old running down the hallway towards the exit and giggling away, with his arms stretched out on either side of him.

"Christopher!" A nurse cried out running down the hallway towards them.

"I got him!" Jane suddenly yelled, bolting down the hallway after the four year old. This four year old could definitely move, no wonder the other nurse couldn't keep up!

"Jane!" Jennifer called after her, but it was too late she was already half-way down the hall.

"Weee!" Christopher giggled away running down the hallway, not even paying attention to anything else around him.

"Chris! Get back here!" Jane called after him, trying to get close enough to grab him. But he was always just out of her reach.

Just as Jane thought she was going to nab him, an empty stretcher was being moved down the hallway. Christopher squealed running underneath it with no problem heading towards the door. Jane cursed under her breath and vaulted herself over, leaving the two nurses standing there bewildered.

Once she reached the doors heading outside, she quickly spotted Christopher running down the concrete path leading to the street. Christopher only seemed to laugh more, not even realizing he was going to be in danger.

Without hesitation Jane ran towards the small boy full tilt, praying to nab him in time. Luckily for her Christopher had stopped long enough for her to catch up and grab him by the back of his shirt, pulling him backwards away from the road.

"Got'cha!" Jane ended up falling backwards onto her butt, with him held tightly in her arms.

Christopher blinked looking up at Jane, he was completely confused "Outside?"

Jane groaned and buried her face in his hair "Are you TRYING to give me a heart attack? You could have been hit by a car!"

"Jane…?"

"Huh?" Looking up to the right to see who said her name. She saw Roy, Ed, Al and another man with short blonde hair. He had a cigarette in his mouth. They were all standing at the curb looking puzzled on what was going on.

"Oh, you're early! I think…?" Jane stood up and made sure to keep a hold of Christopher so he couldn't escape.

"What are you doing? And who's that?" Roy watched the boy pout trying to squirm his way out of her arms.

"I was catching this little escapee…" Jane half tickled the small boy who let out a small giggle. She couldn't totally be mad at him, he just wanted to get out of the hospital too.

"Christopher! Jane!" Jennifer and the other nurse yelled out running towards them.

"I got the little escapee, don't worry" Jane turned around to face them smiling proudly for catching him "He's quite the runner…" she couldn't help but wonder what it must be like at his home, his parents would definitely have be on their toes with him.

"Thank goodness…!" the other nurse sighed stopping to catch her breath. That child was going to be the death of her.

"Christopher, what have I told you about running off like that?" Jennifer shook her finger at him, using a very firm voice.

"But, outside!" Christopher pouted half hiding his face in Jane's shoulder.

"I know you want to go outside kiddo, but you can't just run off like that" Jane couldn't help but chuckle, first he wanted to escape from her so bad and now he's trying to hide from Jennifer.

"Thank you for catching him Jane" Jennifer smiled reaching out to take Christopher from her.

"No prob, I had nothing better to do anyway…" Jane had to half pry him off of her, he did not want to let go "He also needs to learn that running towards the street is a bad idea"

"Christopher Maxwell! Wait until your mother hears about this!" Jennifer started to scold him making sure he couldn't squirm his way out of her arms. She turned heading towards the hospital doors.

"No! Don't tell Mommy!" Christopher cried.

"Well, if you would behave like a GOOD little boy I know you are. I wouldn't have to tell your mother about this would I?" Jennifer then disappeared into the building with the other nurse following not far behind.

"Maybe I should have kept that last part to myself…" Jane mumbled, she couldn't help but feel bad for the poor little guy, he looked more scared of his mother finding out than Jennifer scolding him.

"You chased him all the way outside?" Ed was actually impressed, she didn't even look winded.

"Hmm? Yeah, course I did. I doubt either of them would have caught him in time" Jane laughed "I think I surprised the hell out of the nurses in the hallway though" she started snickering.

"We were wondering what was going on" Al said noticing right away that Jane seemed a little different today.

"Yeah, you just appeared out of nowhere!" Havoc said in awe, he couldn't help himself but stare at her "You never told me she looked just like-" he was quickly silenced by a glare coming from Roy, and he could just feel one from his side from Ed.

"Jane, this is Second Lieutenant Havoc" Roy gestured over to Havoc who was standing next to the car.

Havoc grinned walking over to Jane taking her hand making her blink confused on what he was doing "You can call me Jean"

"Jean? Jean…" Jane trailed off finding the name so familiar, but why?

Havoc blinked wondering if he said something wrong, Jane seemed frozen in place "Um…what did I do?"

"Havoc be quiet a moment" Roy practically ordered "I think she might be remembering something…" she looked lost in thought.

None of them dared to move or speak, they didn't want to ruin the chance of her remembering something important. Jane was so still, unmoving from her spot and looking off at nothing in particular. She was concentrating so hard on something, not wanting to lose it.

* * *

_Flash Back_

_Looking up at the counter a small six year old eyed the large cookie jar in the corner. She looked around finding a chair nearby and pushed it next to the jar before climbing up onto it. Leaning over grabbing the top setting it down quickly, she grabbed a handful of cookies getting ready to run off with them._

" _BARBARA JEAN-!" A very angry woman's voice came from behind her. Turning she saw she had her hands on her hips not looking happy at all._

_She cried out as the woman grabbed her, preparing to scold her and give her a good spanking._

* * *

"Barbara Jean!" Jane suddenly blurted out making all four of them jump not expecting it "My name, my name… it's Barbara Jean" she beamed and gave Havoc a large hug "thank you!"

A small blush creped over Havoc's cheek as he hugged her back "You're welcome?" he wasn't sure what he did, but it involved hugs!

"I know my name!" 'Barbara' grinned and gave the rest of the boys a big hug. Ed couldn't help but get flustered, Al was in pure bliss, a girl was hugging him! And Roy just chuckled hugging her back.

"See, I told you that you'd remember your name one of these days" Roy smiled down at her messing up her hair. He wasn't sure why he did that, but it only seemed to be with her.

"And I got to tell it to you!" Barbara couldn't stop grinning "OH! I have to go tell Jennifer!" She practically bolted to the hospital doors almost bumping into two men on her way inside.

"Hey-! Watch it!" one of the men grumbled.

"Sorry!" Barbara quickly apologized before running inside.

"She was definitely in a hurry…" the other said watching her disappear.

"Havoc, I need you to tell Hawkeye to search for a Barbara Jean" Roy watched Havoc nod and salute.

"On it, Sir!" Havoc grinned moving to the driver's side of the car "And I can see why you are so intent on coming to see her" Roy shot Havoc a glare, sending him scrambling into the car.

"What does he mean by that, Mustang?" Ed raised an eyebrow at Roy who smirked with a shrug.

"Nothing, come on lets head inside. We might be lucky and she remembered something else along with her name" Roy smiled walking towards the doors.

"Hmm…" Ed didn't believe Roy one bit, but there was no point on asking him about it. He'd just come up with some sort of an excuse, he was good at those.

"I'm sure Jane…. Er Barb is telling everyone she meets in the hospital her name" Al chuckled picturing it, she was so excited.

"You boys coming?" Roy called from the doors.

"Yeah! We're coming!" Ed yelled back heading over with Al.

The two men, whom Barbara almost crash into, watched them disappear into the hospital. They exchanged quick glances before walking over to the nearest payphone "Hey, you'll never guess who we just saw"


	5. Chapter 5

"Barbara, come here a moment" Jennifer waved over to her and waited for her to get to the desk before handing over a dark blue sweater "It might be a little big on you"

Barbara took the sweater looking quite confused "Um, thanks?" she observed it wondering why she was being given a sweater. The hospital wasn't exactly cold, so she wouldn't need it inside.

Jennifer laughed watching her looking the sweater over "It's to wear outside my dear, you earned some time out there for stopping Chris the other day"

"Really? No joke?" Barbara stared up at Jennifer completely surprised. She needed to do a good deed more often, or at least stop four year olds from escaping the hospital.

"No joke. But you only get a half hour, no more, no less" Jennifer smiled watching Barbara start to grin from ear to ear.

Barbara started to pull the sweater over her head "And you'll come get me if I'm not back in a half hour, right?" her voice was half muffled through the clothing.

"Bingo" Jennifer said while she looked over at a nearby clip board.

Barbara adjusted the sweater and pulled it down until it sat half way down her thighs. The sleeves were at least an inch longer then where the ends of her fingers are "How do I look?"

"Like your hair is a mess" Jennifer chuckled pointing to her wild, semi static hair sticking up in random places "But the sweater fits at least and not too big on you"

"Oh…" Barbara looked up trying to see her hair "Hey, you got an elastic I can borrow? I seemed to have misplaced mine" she started to run her fingers threw her long hair.

"I do believe I keep a spare here, hang on a moment" Jennifer turned to rummage in a drawer, it didn't take her long to find it and handed it over to Barbara "Remember, I want it back"

"Thanks, and Got'cha" Barbara nodded placing it into her hair after pulling it up into a high pony tail.

"Don't go too far, the furthest you can go is to the benches outside. That's a good ten feet away from the building, one is under that tree you like to look at from your window" Jennifer watched Barbara's expression change from excited to less than impressed.

"Boo….Fine, but that's not very far" Barbara sighed slumping her shoulders slightly, she wanted to explore inside the hospital perimeter not go a mislay ten feet away from the building.

"I can revoke your privileges to go outside if you're going to be like that you know" Jennifer crossed her arms half glaring down at her.

"N-no! It's fine!" Barbara said quickly laughing nervously "Uh… I'll stick close like you said and um, go outside now… sooo… I'll see you in a half hour" she pointed down the hallway with both hands before dashing off.

"No running in the hallway!" Jennifer yelled after her letting out a sigh. She watched her stop and turn letting out a small 'sorry!' before turning back around to walk the rest of the way.

* * *

Finally Barbara was able to go outside, even if it wasn't going to be overly long. Still, she'd be able to go and get in some fresh non-hospital smelling air. Near the end of the hall she saw two nurses trying to get a taller man's attention. She quickly hid in a nearby doorway, half peeking out to see what was going on.

"Excuse me, sir!" one of the nurses spoke.

"Sir, who are you? And you do know it's not winter, right?" another nurse said raising an eyebrow at his attire.

He had messy greasy looking hair, which sat just above his shoulders. He wore a large fur hat on his head, with a matching long fur cape. He looked as if he was living out in the woods for a couple of years and definitely didn't look like a people person.

The man kept ignoring them, continuing to walk down the hallway glancing around, seeming to be looking for something. The two nurses on the other hand weren't going to stand for this and one dashed off to get some help. While the other moved ahead of him to stand in his way.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave!" The remaining nurse said with her arms crossed.

The man looked down at her un-amused and grabbed her by the collar and tossed her aside onto the ground. She let out a small cry as she hit the tiled floor.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Barbara suddenly blurted out and quickly regretted it. His attention was now fixed on her, he looked at her a moment before slowly starting to grin. It sent a shiver down her spine, he looked like a cat just finding its prized prey. He started walking towards her, his boots clomping against the tiled floor.

Barbara started to panic scared of the tall barbaric looking man heading straight for her. But fortunately for her, her instincts to fight went into overdrive. She clapped her hands together making a spark between them, sending a large wave of fire down the hallway towards him.

He was surprised momentarily that she knew alchemy before dodging the blast. The heat from the fire set off the sprinkler system making everyone inside panic thinking a fire broke loose. He growled annoyed moving away from the wall, he hated to get wet, let alone the fur he wore.

Barbara stared at her hands unsure of what she just did, but whatever happened she just missed the man. Who looked very pissed off and growling while he looked in her direction "What the hell do you want?' she practically screamed at him, finally noticing she was getting wet from the sprinklers.

He didn't say a word, he just let out a low throated grunt and charged at her. She let out a yelp quickly moving out of the way spinning around him, slipping on the wet tiles. He quickly spun back around smirking at her, she was now in the direction he wanted her to go in. He could see the fear in her eyes and couldn't help himself but start to grin, he knew this would be a good chase.

Barbara felt her heart skip a beat now realizing that he was targeting her, he came looking for her, and she was terrified. Her gut told her to run, run as fast as she could away from the crazed man. While her instincts told her to stay and fight defeating the man on her own. But she was too scared and bolted out the front entrance hearing the man give a deep throated laugh before running out after her.

"Barbara?" Jennifer yelled down the hallway just missing the pair running out of the building. Looking around she saw another nurse sitting on the floor looking like she was in shock "Melanie!" Jennifer helped her to her feet "What happened, and are you alright?"

"S-She-he…." Melanie half stuttered out looking up at Jennifer "She used alchemy against him!"

"Melanie, calm down. Tell me what happened" Jennifer watched Melanie take a few deep breaths to calm down before attempting to speak again.

"Barbara… she, used fire alchemy against this tall man. He had fur from head to toe…a-and he chased her out of the building" Melanie said in a shaky voice pointing over to the front doors

Jennifer stared down at her in shock and rushed to the doors looking around for her. She didn't see Barbara or this tall man wearing fur anywhere in sight. But she did see what appeared to be alchemy made items scattered around. Some were in the street and blocking one half of the road, people were standing outside of their cars looking bewildered on what just happened.

Running out into the street quickly, Jennifer ran to the nearest person "Sir! Did you see which way they went?"

The man didn't even look down at her and pointed to the left "They went that way…"

She turned to look and let out a gasp seeing more alchemy made items about. They all seemed to be heading in one direction. Jennifer ran back into the hospital grabbing the closest phone "Patch me in to Colonel Mustang! It's an emergency!"

"Ma'am, I can't just-"

"Did you not hear me? It's an emergency!" Jennifer yelled into the phone, she didn't have time for this. Barbara was in danger!

"Please Ma'am-!"

"My HUSBAND is General Daniel Ellis! I suggest you patch me in right away to Colonel Mustang or-!" Jennifer stopped yelling just as she heard the phone click a moment before starting to ring.

* * *

Roy was signing papers in his office just like any other day with Hawkeye keeping a close eye on him. When his phone starting ringing, he wasn't expecting any calls today. Placing his pen down onto his desk, he reached over picking up the receiver just about to say his usual greeting.

"Colonel Mustang!" A familiar voice said over the phone cutting him off from even saying hello.

"Jennifer, what's wrong?" Roy could tell by her tone of voice she wasn't calling with good news. Everyone else in the office stopped what they were doing to look over at him wondering what was going on.

"It's Barbara, A man covered from head to toe in fur just chased her out of the building" Jennifer explained sounding a bit calmer then she did a moment ago.

"Do you know which way they went?" Roy stood up from his desk keeping the phone close to his ear.

Ed and Al walked in about to speak when Hawkeye raised her hand to silence them. The pair looked over at Roy who was listening carefully to the other person on the line, and by the expression on his face it couldn't be good.

"I didn't see him chase her out, another nurse told me. But from the alchemy created items I see scattered about, you'll have no trouble in following them" Jennifer paused a moment giving orders to someone else nearby before speaking again "It looked like to me he was leading her somewhere"

"We'll get her back" Roy assured her before they both exchanged quick goodbyes and hung up the phone. He cursed to himself for not having guards posted at the hospital sooner, this situation wouldn't have happened. Looking up seeing everyone else in the office looking back over at him awaiting his orders "Fullmetal, Alphonse you two are coming with me" He grabbed his coat and gloves pulling them on "Barbara is in danger, an alchemist is chasing after her"

* * *

Barbara let out a yelp as another trap seemed to spring up in front of her making her change her direction. It was happening more often, like he was leading her to where he wanted to go. "Leave me alone!" She yelled back at the barbaric looking man, but he would never respond. Just seemed to laugh or smile at her, it was really starting to creep her out.

He lead her to what appeared to be a park, it had small patches of wide open spaces and small clusters of trees. He was having quite a lot of fun chasing her down, and more intrigued at her trying to stop him. She would clap her hands together making walls up between them in panic or that fire she did inside the hospital. He was fascinated how she could do this without drawing an alchemy array.

"I-I didn't do anything!" Barbara screamed out in a shaky voice. The last thing she wanted was to look terrified and upset near this man, trying to look brave and unafraid of him. "Go away!" she turned towards him clapping her hands together before hitting the ground with them, sending sharp pointed rocks in his direction.

He jumped out of the way watching the rocks go by, her aim seemed to be getting worse. Maybe he was finally wearing her down, physically and mentally. He did enjoy watching his pray slowly break. Turning to her, he could see her brave face was deteriorating, her whole body shaking in fear. He smirked noticing she was almost right where he wanted her, just a few more steps…

Barbara was shaking and couldn't stop, all she wanted was someone to came and save her "J-Just go… away….!" She choked out, taking a few steps backwards that seemed to only make the man grin even more.

She soon realized why. Moving her left foot it hit something metal, setting off a mechanical like sound that sprung into action. She didn't even have time to register what was happening. All she could do was watch a large metal looking mouth, complete with large sinister looking fangs, close over her foot. It all seemed to happen in slow motion and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

* * *

Havoc hadn't even stopped the car before Roy, Ed, and Al. Were already practically jumping out of the vehicle. It was with good reason, not even a moment later a bloodcurdling scream was heard inside the park.

"BARBARA!"

Running into the park quickly, they soon came upon the man with the fur coat. His back was facing them and they didn't see Barbara anywhere in sight.

"What have you done with Barb?" Ed yelled out before Roy even had the chance too.

The man glanced back a moment before turning his whole body sideways to get a better look at them. Their attention was quickly diverted past him, staring down in shock seeing Barbara on the ground with her left leg in what appeared to be a large bear trap. She was shaking and trying to grasp onto the trap to remove it from her leg.

"YOU BASTARD!" Ed roared, running towards the man clapping his hands together at the same time creating his automail blade.

The man looked surprised for a brief moment grinning, moving away from Ed's blade coming straight for him. Then flipping backwards before Al had a chance to lay a finger on him, he moved fast for large a suit of armor. A snap was heard a second later, he tossed his fur cape in front of himself, taking in the blast. He hated to let such a beautiful piece of fur go up in flames, but it was either that or him.

The boys took another crack at the man, attacking together this time. They were both so angry and full of rage. It was only a feeling they only really felt when the other brother was in pain or in mortal danger. But it triggered within them, seeing Barbara hurt and in pain.

Roy silently cursed to himself, he missed the man. Now the boys were too close so he couldn't get a clear shot without hitting them.

The man finally moved back just far enough to move his hands to his shoulders, each grabbing a hilt of a machete knife. He grinned at the boys, charging at them and they all too happily charged right back. Trying to hit him and also block the machete knives.

"You are so dead!" Ed snarled as a machete knife clanged against his automail blade, while he moved to kick him with his left leg.

The man moved just in time to miss Ed's leg, but not so lucky with Al. Who grabbed him tossing him a good few feet away, making him roll and half skip across the ground. He just managed to get to his feet when an all too familiar snap was heard.

A circle of fire suddenly surrounded him, he grunted annoyed by the flames. Did he really expect some mislay blaze could contain him?

"Stop butting in!" Ed yelled turning to glare back at Roy.

"You're not the only one who is angry about him hurting Barbara!" Roy yelled back, giving a small glare.

"This is no time to fight! Honestly!" Al groaned frustrated, of all the times for those two to get into a yelling match.

Inside the circle of fire the man grinned to himself, he could just barely make out their figures through the blaze. He took one of his machete knifes moving his arm back and threw it as hard as he could at the smaller one.

While Roy was looking over at Ed in front of the blaze, he caught sight of a faint shine. His heart stopped a moment as he realized what it was "Edward! Get down!"

Before Ed had a chance to realize what Roy was yelling about, after the man just yelled his actual name, Roy snapped his fingers hitting his target dead on. Sending what was left of the machete sideways lodging itself into a nearby tree.

Both boys stared at the hunk of metal sticking out in the tree stunned a moment. They looked back at Roy who looked both mad and relieved all at the same time.

The fire was suddenly snuffed out making the trio direct their attention back to the barbaric looking man. He was just standing back up after making an alchemy array on the ground. He grinned at them getting into a fighting stance with his last remaining machete.

"Shit…" Ed cursed, he forgotten about the man knowing alchemy "Al, stay on your toes" he wasn't sure if the man had drawn anything else while in the flame circle, but he wasn't about to take a chance.

"Right" Al nodded, following his brother to attack the man together.

Once their feet hit the outer rim of where the fire once was, three traps sprung into action. Trying to either smash them to the ground, or capture them in a cage. They made quick work of those, by smashing them down or Roy blowing them up with his fire.

"Won't be smiling long, you smug bastard!" Ed yelled as he finally made it to the man, taking a slice at him.

He managed to block Ed's attack with his machete and just barely dodged Al. The three of them almost looked as if they were dancing not fighting. The way they would twist and move to avoid the other, even back flipping out of reach. It looked like it was all a choreographed dance routine and not an actual fight.

The man still looked quite full himself chuckling, even with the new bruises and blood trickling out of his nose, curtsy of the younger Elric. But it was all soon to come to an end.

Ed took another swing at the man, just missing his skin by a mere hair. Unfortunately for him, Al always seemed to come up right after and he was unable to move quickly enough.

He went down from the blow Al gave him in the chest, he didn't even have time to get up this time. Ed was already on him like a hawk, beating the man senseless.

As much as the man deserved to get beaten to a pulp, Al had to pull his brother away from the now unconscious man "Brother, that's enough! We need him alive!"

Ed let out a snarl trying to escape, he wasn't finished! That man deserved much more for what he did to her. It then dawned on him, they forgotten about- "Barb-!" he suddenly shouted in panic, trying to squirm out of Al's grip. He was quickly let go of as the pair ran over to her, with Roy not too far behind.

Barbara whimpered still trying to get the bear trap off, but her hands couldn't grab a hold of it. But she kept trying, not even realizing she was cutting up her hands, she just wanted it off.

"You're hurting yourself…" Ed said softly kneeling down next to her, surprising both Al and Roy. When she didn't respond he placed his hand onto her shoulder, she was shaking like a leaf and let out a small sob looking up at him. He felt his heart breaking seeing her in such a state, and he had no idea why.

"E-Ed…." Barbara sniffled, the tears streaming down her face.

"You'll be alright…" Ed gave her a small smile patting her shoulder slightly, he really did not like seeing anyone cry.

"We'll get you free in no time" Roy said kneeling down next to her, on the opposite side.

Al knelt down in front of her preparing to open the trap to free her leg "I need you to hold still… okay…?" He saw her nodding ever so slightly and closed her eyes not wanting to watch. He moved his hands to the trap, barley touching it with his fingers, when she twitched.

Al looked over at Ed and Roy nervously, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Barb anymore then she was. Ed looked back at him as did Roy, and the three of them all nodded at one another. Al quickly opened the trap freeing her leg, making her cry out, instinctively wanting to move away from what is causing her pain. Ed grabbed a hold of her to make sure she stayed in place, making her latch onto him, burying her face into his shirt. Roy moved her leg out of the trap before it was closed once again, and Al made quick work to make it into a harmless piece of metal.

"Boys, bring her to the hospital. I'll be there shortly" Roy watched them both nod in unison. Catching sight of Hawkeye and the rest of the team arriving to see what had gone on in the park.

Al and Ed managed to de-attach Barbara long enough to get up onto their feet, before rushing off to get her to the hospital as soon as possible.

Hawkeye watched the boys run past her carrying an injured girl, who she could only assume was the girl from the hospital. She made her way over to Roy and watched him stand up cleaning off his uniform. "Sir, are you alright?"

Roy nodded and glanced over at the unconscious man on the ground a few feet away "But he won't be" he growled.

While Roy was giving orders to take the man away into custody, someone else in the park was watching them from affair.

"Interesting… quite interesting"


	6. Chapter 6

A few days passed since the incident in the park, and Barbara was slowly recovering from the injuries on her leg. She was assigned to the boys, more so they volunteered to watch over her. It surprised everyone in the office, they both looked so serious about it. No one dared argued with the pair, once they set their minds on something there's no going back.

The boys brought her into the office everyday with them. Their main argument was that they couldn't exactly leave her all by herself, not with what had happened. They did have a valid point. She borrowed some of Ed's clothes to wear, more so Al did, Ed didn't wear them anyway. The clothes were a little too big on her. Which of course, Ed was all too proud and happy to point out. Everyone was starting to get the pair mixed up, they already looked so much alike and her borrowing Ed's clothes wasn't helping the matter.

The man they'd taken into custody was also recovering from his wounds, which the boys mostly inflicted upon him. Roy made sure to have guards posted at all times to make sure the man didn't manage to escape the hospital room. The only reason he wasn't thrown into jail, besides his wounds, was that they needed information from him.

* * *

Roy was beyond frustrated with the man, he wouldn't cooperate. He was trying to get the man to talk for over four hours now. By talk, was trying to get him to tell him which hand he wrote with. The man couldn't speak, they discovered this when the doctor did a full examination and found his tongue missing. All the man did was sit there grinning at them, laughing now and then finding it amusing he is being interrogated. He would be a dead man if Roy didn't need information from him.

"Sir, a word?" Hawkeye suddenly spoke from the doorway.

"Don't think we are finished" Roy glared at the man before heading towards the door, he heard him chuckling as the door closed "What is it, Lieutenant?"

"We've finally managed to find out who he is. I also bought this with me, as you requested" Hawkeye handed Roy a small notepad and a pen "His name is Vlad Solomon, he is a notorious hunter whose specialty is traps"

"Thank you, Lieutenant" Roy let out a small sigh. He still had no idea how to get the man to talk. He just needed a plan and the right motivation.

"Is that guy still here?" Ed walked over with Al in toe. He was going to give him a piece of his mind! This involved his fist connecting to his face.

"Edward, Alphonse? What are you two doing here?" Hawkeye was surprised on seeing both boys, she knew Edward would have arrived but not Alphonse.

"Aren't you two keeping an eye on Barbara?" Roy didn't think they would have left her alone.

"She is in the office with Havoc and everyone else" Al glanced over at the door where that horrible man was being held, he would never forgive him on hurting Barb like that.

"Like we'd leave her alone while someone is trying to kidnap her" Ed rolled his eyes, honestly was Mustang stupid?

"Well, this might work out" Roy slowly started to smirk, with the boys they'd definitely get information out of him "Before we head in, I want to tell you two that Vlad is mute. We will need him to write out his answers to us on this pad" he waved the notepad in hand.

"If he tries anything funny I'll kick his ass!" Ed grinned evilly opening the door heading inside.

"Brother! We need him conscious!" Al quickly followed after his brother.

Roy and Hawkeye both exchanged quick glances at one another before heading inside the room.

Vlad gave a deep throated laugh as he watched Ed walk into the room, finding it hilarious the small boy was trying to look threatening. He watched the others pile into the room carefully. He knew how these interrogations worked, he wasn't stupid.

"Which hand do you write with, Vlad Solomon?" Roy smiled watching Vlad looking surprised for a moment before rolling his eyes with a snort. "You're only making things harder on yourself Vlad, what else do you have to lose?"

"Maybe a hand" Ed grinned, earning himself a small smack upside the head from Hawkeye who was standing behind him "Hey!"

"Wait, he does have a point" Roy grinned walking over to Vlad "We can do this by trial and error Vlad, maybe I should get Fullmetal here to do the honors?" he watched Vlad look unfazed "Why are you so intent on not telling us?" he wanted to throttle the man, he was on his last nerve.

Vlad still didn't budge and his facial expression never changed, he just looked at them un-amused. He knew however this was a losing battle. Finally after a long moment of silence, he sighed nodding towards his left shoulder.

"About time you cooperated with us Vlad" Roy couldn't help but smile, finally he was going to get some information out of him.

Vlad had his left hand un-cuffed from the chair and a note pad and pen placed in front of him. He looked down at the pad before looking up at Roy with a smile.

"Don't even think of trying anything funny either" Ed growled crossing his arms, he wasn't going to take any chances with him. Al crossed his arms to look just as intimating.

"Why do you want Barbara?" Roy asked watching Vlad pickup the pen and started to write on the pad they gave him.

After a few moments he finished pushing it away from himself. Hawkeye took the pad and read it aloud "It says he was hired to kidnap her" she placed the pad back down onto the table where Vlad could reach it.

"Who hired you and why?" Roy crossed his arms watching Vlad pull the pad back smirking as he wrote down something else before pushing it away again.

"A man named Kevin, he never gave his last name. All he was told was to bring her back alive" As Hawkeye read on Vlad gave a small chuckle "And because he is the type of guy who doesn't like to get his hands dirty, his hired goons weren't capable of taking on the flame alchemist, let alone Fullmetal over there" Hawkeye made sure not to say 'pipsqueak' as he had originally written down, last thing they needed was Edward going on a rage beating the man unconscious.

"How did they know we were visiting her?" Roy blinked stunned a moment before narrowing his eyes at Vlad "And how did they know she was there?"

Vlad gave a deep throated laugh amused by Roy getting angry at him, he took the pad writing down something else before handing it to Hawkeye to read "His goons had informed him that the girl was in that hospital and you were quite familiar with her. Never know, Mr. Flame Alchemist, someone in this very building might be one of them..."

"What? You can't be serious!" Ed and Al both yelled out surprised, that couldn't be true! Could it?

"We'll see about that" Roy growled not liking the thought one bit "Where were you going to take Barbara once you had her? We can use Fullmetal as bait"

"BAIT? Are you serious? I'm not a freaking girl!" Ed snarled.

"You could pass off as Barb…" Al couldn't help but think that the plan would actually work.

"AL!" Ed practically screamed at his brother, he was supposed to be on HIS side! Al shrunk down slightly muttering a 's-sorry-!' as Ed batted him over the head.

"You do look alike Fullmetal, your hair is almost identical and you two are almost the same height" Roy said glancing over at Vlad who was laughing so hard he was having trouble writing his reply.

"Are you saying I look like a girl?" Ed turned to attack Roy but was held back by Al.

"No! That's not what I'm saying at all!" Roy suddenly got déjà vu when he said Barbara looked like Edward, he really needed to stop putting his foot in his mouth.

"Al! Let me go!" Ed was still trying to escape Al's grasp to throttle Mustang, he wasn't going to get away with calling him a girl!

"Not until you calm down!" Al sighed, maybe the Colonel deserved to get beat up a 'little', but Ed would go overboard.

"If you boys are finished…" Hawkeye sighed watching them turn to look towards her, she was holding the note pad in her hand. All the while Vlad was still chuckling in his chair "He said that window of opportunity went by three days ago, that guy isn't the type to stick around in one place too long. Or to have him bring her where his base of operations is, he could have gotten along with the man. But he was too arrogant and paranoid for his liking"

"Great… sounds like a mad man" Roy sighed rubbing his temple, that was the last thing they needed.

"Does he know alchemy?" Ed asked sounding calmer then he was a minute ago. He watched Vlad half nod looking a bit unsure.

"Did he mention at all why he wanted Barbara for?" Roy asked.

"And was there an older man with them?" Al suddenly spoke up, placing his brother down onto the floor.

Vlad didn't take long to write out his next reply and handed the pad over to Hawkeye to read aloud "He says all he overheard, while he counted out his payment in advance. Was something about needing her to get back home, wherever that is? And that older man he thinks is her Uncle. He never saw him, but they did mention an Uncle of hers a few times" she placed the pad back onto the table in front of Vlad.

"Did they say his name at all?" Roy watched Vlad shake his head no. He couldn't help but glare at him not believing him, he watched Vlad smile a moment before chuckling at him, shaking his head again. Roy let out a sigh as Vlad honestly didn't know, knowing her Uncle's name would have been a crucial key to this whole ordeal. But alas, they are no step closer to knowing any new information. Just led them to more and more questions unanswered.

"Did they say how she was to help them get back home?" Ed scratched his head confused, why would they need her to get back home for? It didn't make any sense.

"How did you know what she looked like? I doubt you could have recognized her with just a verbal description" Roy crossed his arms and watched Vlad start writing in the pad once again.

After he finished, Hawkeye picked up the pad to read once again "He says they didn't say how, just mentioned about it once and that was all. Kevin had given him some photos of the girl and he has them with him, in the right pocket of his shirt…"

Vlad couldn't help but start to grin watching the four of them look over at him. He pointed with his free hand where he stashed the photos, it looked as if he placed them right over his heart.

Ed and Al suddenly wanted to throttle the man. While they grabbed the photos away from him so he could never look at them again.

"I'll get them" Al suddenly spoke up moving to stand next to Vlad. Who couldn't see his face or his expression, but Vlad knew that the boy was glaring deep holes into him. He just sat back and let him take the photos out of his pocket. The last thing he wanted was to get punched in the face trying to escape.

Al gave him one last stern glare before turning away from him. He looked down at the photos he was holding and froze.

"Al?" Ed tapped his brother on the shoulder, while he leaned in closer to try and see the photos he had in his hands.

"Look…" Al placed the two photos down onto the small table in front of Vlad. Everyone came in closer to take a look.

They were like nothing they ever seen before, the photos were so bright and crisp. Looking like they were staring at the actual event happening, not a photograph. One of the pictures showed Barbara with her hair pulled back in a high pony-tail wearing a blue sweater, while scratching a large black dog back. The dog was wearing a navy blue collar, it looked as if it had yellow pieces on it, and he had bits of gray in his fur showing he wasn't a young dog. The pair of them looked so happy with one another, they could only assume the dog was hers.

The other photo showed her pointing to the left while looking up at the man standing in front of her. She had what appeared to be a small grocery bag tucked in her arm. The man's back was towards the camera and they couldn't see his face, he wore a brown trench coat. He had gray hair that was pulled back in a high pony-tail, the ends were an inch above his shoulders. He was looking and pointing in the opposite direction that she was.

"Looks like he was stalking her…" Ed growled out not liking that idea one bit "And these are the clearest pictures I have ever seen, how did he get them to look like that?" he picked up the photo of Barbara and the older gentlemen to get a better look at.

"Do you think that man is the one she was talking about?" Al asked pointing at the photo Ed was holding.

"Hey, maybe! He has gray hair like she said he did" Ed observed the photo, looking like if he moved it a certain way he could see his face.

Roy picked up the other photo with Barbara and the large black dog "I think this Kevin, was planning on this for awhile…" he couldn't help but frowned at the thought.

"I think you're right about that…" Ed glanced up at Roy who was standing next to him "We should show her these, might help jog her memory" he could only hope they would.

Roy nodded in agreement and looked over at Vlad. He couldn't help but smirk at him "Well Vlad, since you have no more information for us. I do hope you enjoy your LONG stay in prison" he called in the guards to take him away.

Vlad didn't look overly happy as his hands were re-cuffed behind him and lead to the doorway. He turned looking back in the room one last time and grinned at them, looking like he knew something they didn't. He gave a deep laugh as he was shoved out into the hallway.

Ed was about to go beat the grin of that man's face, when he felt a hand holding him back. He looked up seeing Roy glaring at the door, while keeping a firm grip on his shoulder "Leave him for now, Fullmetal. Let's go back to Barbara and show her those pictures"

"But-!" Ed sighed reluctantly before giving a small nod. He knew Roy was right, he'd never admit it out loud though.

* * *

Arriving back at the office the four of them were surprised to see the men working at their desks. Or they heard them coming and quickly went to look like they were working the whole time. Barbara was sitting on the sofa with her leg up on the small coffee table and drawing in her notepad. Hayate was next to her getting his belly rubbed, he soon moved when he saw Hawkeye walk over. He didn't want to get in trouble for being on the sofa.

"Oh, your back!" Barbara smiled up at them placing the notepad onto her lap.

"How are you feeling?" Roy asked taking a set next to her on the couch.

"Okay, my leg doesn't hurt that much anymore… or I'm used to the pain?" Barbara chuckled watching Al come to stand behind the sofa and Ed plopped himself on the other side of her. "I got the bandages taken off my hands while you were gone, see" She held up her hands palm sides up to show them. Her hands still had cuts on them, but she didn't need the large bandages anymore.

"Told you they'd come off soon. Oh, we got some pictures for you to look…at…" Ed paused when he noticed some red marks on her hand "You're bleeding!" Ed suddenly leaned over grabbing her right hand to try and wipe away the blood on her pinky.

Barbara blinked at Ed startled a moment on what he was doing, she wasn't bleeding. She realized what he was trying to wipe off and started to laugh "Ed, that's my birthmark. It's not going to come off"

"A what…?" Ed looked at her puzzled. It only made her giggle more.

"A birthmark silly" Barbara chuckled moving her hand away so everyone could see "I was born with it" she pointed at her right pinky "It just has red patches on it, I like to think they make little designs. Like this one is a heart" she moved her finger to the middle of her pinky. It did look like the red patch was in the form of a small heart.

"I've never seen a birthmark before…" Al leaned in a little closer to see and was happy she lifted up her hand so he could get a better view.

"I honestly never noticed it" Roy couldn't believe he missed it. He always noticed these sorts of small details on people.

Ed pulled her hand back down so he could get a better look at it, he was fascinated. He's heard about people with these birthmarks, but he's never actually seen one in person.

"A lot of people don't" Barbara glanced over at Ed, and it looked like he was memorizing it. Almost as if it held some secret information on it "or if they do see it, they just think I got red ink or something on my hand"

"Don't we have some pictures for her to see?" Hawkeye spoke up making everyone look over at her. It was the main reason why they all gathered around her. Roy wasn't about to get out of doing his work that easily.

"Huh? Oh right!" Ed let go of her hand and dug into his pocket taking out the photos, handing them over to her.

The photo on the top was of her and the large black dog "Where did…?" Barbara asked as she looked it over, the dog was familiar to her. She knew that dog, at least she felt like she did, and they looked so happy in one another's company.

"We acquired them from Vlad, the man who tried to kidnap you in the park" Roy explained watching her tilt her head to the side studying the photo "Do you know of a man named Kevin?" he took a chance to ask, she looked deep in thought like the time before when she remembered her name.

"Doesn't ring a bell…" Barbara half mumbled, moving the photo to see the second one underneath. She immediately froze as soon as she saw it "T-That's him! That's the man from my dreams!" Even without seeing his face, she knew it was him.

"I knew it!" Ed grinned proudly. It only earned him a slight smack upside the head from Al, he was the one had originally stated that it could be the man she was referring too.

"Do you remember his name?" Al asked her as Ed grumbled at him. He watched her shake her head slightly and ran her fingers over the man in the photo.

"What about your Uncle?" Roy asked, hoping it might spark a memory. It worked before when Jean told her his name, it was worth trying again.

"My Uncle….?" Barbara trailed off, falling silent  _"Uncle…"_ her eyes started to well up and one stray tear fell down onto the man in the photo.

"B-Barb!" Ed and Al yelled out at the same time in a panic "You made her cry!"

"That wasn't my intention-!" Roy was cut off mid sentence when she suddenly fainted. Luckily he moved quick enough to catch her from pitching forward onto the coffee table.

"COLONEL!"

* * *

_Flash Back_

_Small hands pushed opened a large wooden door and a man sitting at a large desk came into view. It was full of scattered papers. Some of them were stacked neatly, while others were in disarray over the desk._

_She wondered over to him and tugged on his sleeve to get his attention "Uncle…?"_

" _Hmm?" He looked down and smiled gently at her, his gold eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses "Hey sweetheart" he reached down and patted her on the head._

_She smiled up at him and lifted her arms wanting to be picked up. He chuckled and scooped her up placing her down onto his lap. She snuggled against him and turned her head to look at the papers on the desk._

" _What's that?" she asked him, pointing at one of the papers he was working on. It had a weird circle with a bunch of different lines and shapes inside._

" _That's an alchemy array" He smiled watching her pick up the paper to observe it._

" _Al-chem-ie" she said trying to sound out every syllable "Pwetty circle?" she asked looking up at him._

_He laughed leaning over to kiss her on the forehead "I've never heard of anyone call an alchemy array, a 'pretty circle' before" he smiled down at her, running his fingers through her hair "But my little Kitten is only four"_

" _What's alchemie?" she asked, never breaking eye contact with him._

_He looked down at her surprised "Well, how do I put this…" he paused looking deep in thought a few minutes before speaking again "Alchemy can be used to create or fix items and we use these array's to help us focus the flow of power needed to do so"_

_She tilted her head to the side ever so slightly, taking in what he was telling her. He stopped talking to look down at her, looking as if he was making sure she was paying attention. He slowly started to smile before speaking once again._

" _But, you cannot make something out of nothing. In order to gain, something of equal value must be lost in return" he paused once again looking down at her. She just sat his lap quietly, taking in what he was telling her "Kitten…?" he started to look a little worried._

" _Teach me?" she asked these two small simple words and his face just lit up._

" _Of course I will!" He sounded as if he was on the verge of tears. He hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head "It'll be our little secret, okay? And before I teach you alchemy, you need to know it doesn't work in our world"_

" _Kay~!"_

_End_ _Flash Back_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bonus picture for you =D Enjoy~
> 
> [Picture can be found here~](http://windrider01.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d3dir1z)


	7. Chapter 7

A month had passed by in almost a blink of an eye. During that time, Barbara's leg was healing nicely, allowing her to walk on it for short periods of time. She was also growing closer to everyone in the office, like she had always been there with them. She had especially gotten close to the boys, the three of them acted more like siblings than strangers that had only met almost two months before.

It was another long and boring day at the office, but everyone was busily working after some convincing from Hawkeye. The paper work was stacked up in high piles on the desks. Roy was practically hidden behind the heaps on his. He had no desire to work on any of them. Sure, he didn't at any other time either, but now his attention was elsewhere. He glanced through the small cracks between the papers to see the two blonds sitting on the sofa.

Ed and Barbara had made themselves comfortable on the sofa, they'd been sitting most of the day with Al. They usually chatted about Alchemy, Barbara's arrays, and other drawings. If it weren't for the fact he could see them, Roy would have sworn Ed was talking with himself. Their voices tended to sound so much alike, making it almost impossible to know who was talking if you weren't looking directly at them. But no one would ever dare tell the pair, especially Edward. He would go off on a rant, accusing them of saying he had a girly voice.

They still had no information about her. No, 'Barbara Jeans' existed thus far, but that didn't mean they'd given up yet.

"Why did you draw this one?" Ed asked pointing at the newest array.

"Hmm?" Barbara glanced over to see the array. "Oh, I think that's the last one Uncle showed me." Or at least she felt like it had been.

"You know it's wrong, right?" Ed watched her blink at him a little confused "There's no way it could work."

"What do you mean it wouldn't work?" Barbara leaned in closer to Ed to get a better look at the array. She saw nothing wrong with it, it was completed and everything looked right to her.

"It's all backwards. Look." Ed started to run his finger along the lines. "These should be drawn the opposite way."

"Uncle wouldn't have shown it to me if it was wrong. He was very thorough with his arrays. Always made sure everything was perfect. I guess I get that from him," Barbara chuckled.

"Well, he's wrong on this one," Ed mumbled, while leaning back on the sofa still half observing the paper. In some strange way, he felt as if it wasn't wrong either.

"He is a lot older then you, Ed," Barbara smiled. "Maybe he knows things that you don't?" She motioned at the array in his hand. "I get the feeling he was trying to figure something out. What I'm not sure, though."

Ed wrinkled his nose slightly, keeping his eyes on the array. "Figure something out, huh?" He stared at the array unsure of what the man was trying to do. It was completely wrong and the man must have known this. Why would he even come up with such an array? He couldn't possibly think it would ever work. Just what had he been trying to do?

"I hope it wasn't for anything bad, not that I think your Uncle is bad or anything!" Al said quickly not wanting to offend her. "Just, it's so much different then what we know…"

"And it wouldn't work" Ed piped up, earning himself a thwap to the chest from Barbara.

"Hey!" he grumbled rubbing his chest slightly.

"I didn't hit you  _THAT_  hard," Barbara snickered over at Ed who half glared at her. "I just know it wasn't for anything bad, gut feeling you could call it."

"It still won't work," Ed mumbled, leaning over to place the paper back onto the coffee table.

"Oh, hush from the peanut gallery." Barbara poked Ed in the flesh arm and grinned.

Ed rolled his eyes at her and had a small smile over his lips.

"What…?" Barbara tilted her head at him confused, just why was he smiling at her like that?

"Nothing." Ed continued to smile, picking up another paper to look at, he actually liked having her around. It was strange; they acted like they've always known each other just by how they teased one another, pushing each other's buttons. But they'd always laugh or make up at the end. It all just naturally seemed to happen, it all just felt… right.

"About your Uncle…" Al started, picking up a stray page from the coffee table. "Do you remember anything else about him? I mean, you do talk about him an awful lot."

"He's my Uncle, of course I do." Barbara flashed a quick grin over at Al. He seemed to be the only one who would caught her Ed-like grins. "He taught me Alchemy." She looked down at the papers on the table and smiled softly. "He liked to call me Kitten."

"Kitten…?" Ed blinked over at her with an eyebrow slightly raised. He could just feel Al getting excited over the mention of the word 'kitten'.

Barbara couldn't help but laugh "Yeah, it was his nickname for me. He rarely called me by my real name. Not that I minded!"

"That's such a cute nickname! Your Uncle most certainly loved you a lot!" Al beamed and couldn't help but wonder if her Uncle loved cats too...

"Why did he call you Kitten?" Ed glanced over at her, suddenly curious about it.

"I'm pretty sure I asked him the same thing!" Barbara laughed. "I can't remember his reply, if he had one that is."

"Did you live with your Uncle?" Roy suddenly spoke up from his desk, making the trio turn to look over at him. "I only ask because you only seem to speak only of him, and no one else in your family."

Barbara went silent, a bit taken aback by his question. No one had asked her anything like that. Did she really talk about her Uncle so much? She bit her lip ever so slightly in thought, trying to remember anyone else in her family.

Roy felt his chest tighten by her reaction, feeling horrible for asking. Her parents could have died when she was a child and her Uncle had taken her in. Not that it wasn't an uncommon thing that happened, but to ask someone who is slowly remembering their past wasn't the best move in the world. "You don't need to answer, I'm sorry—"

"Mah, it's okay, Roy" Barbara said cutting Roy off mid-sentence, looking over at him and half rolling her eyes with a smile on her face "No need to apologize, you're just curious that's all. I could have lived with him… or at least I visited Uncle a lot?" Her eyes started to brighten as she spoke about him. "Uncle always looked forward to working on alchemy with me. Think I practically lived there after awhile," she laughed and proceeded to talk about her Uncle and herself staying up late working on alchemy.

Roy couldn't help but smile back at her, feeling quite relieved he hadn't made her upset like the last time. He was just about to go back to 'work' when he happened to catch Ed looking over in his direction. Their eyes locked for a mere split second before Ed quickly looked away.

Roy, however, kept looking in Ed's direction and chuckled softly as he saw Ed kept glancing over at him, quickly looking in another direction every time their eyes met. He couldn't help noticing the light shade of pink over Ed's cheeks.

The pair of them continued this little 'game' of sorts for a few more minutes until Barbara stretched out, almost cat like, before getting up from the sofa.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ed asked, reaching for another paper from the coffee table.

"To the bathroom," Barbara said, pointing towards the door and sounding curious to why he was asking.

"One of us will go with you then," Roy said from behind his paper work. He wasn't about to let her go off on her own with someone after her.

Barbara sighed, rolling her eyes slightly. "To do what, hold my hand?"

"What…?" Roy blinked, confused by her statement.

"I can go to the bathroom by myself you know. I'm not a child," Barbara grumbled walking towards the door. "I'll just be ten minutes or something, and that includes walking there and back. So… if I'm not back by that time, come looking for me." She half waved her hand as she went.

She left the room leaving everyone slightly bewildered a bit unsure of what just happened, except Hawkeye, who sighed shaking her head. Ed on the other hand was half giggling on the sofa. He found that hilarious.

Barbara splashed some water on her face in the bathroom and let out a sigh. She didn't quite feel like herself today; she was home sick and worried. Was her Uncle okay? The last thing she remembered was seeing him beat up and bleeding. And just who was trying to kidnap her?

She finished up in the bathroom and walked out into the hallway, half expecting to find someone standing outside the door waiting for her. Feeling relieved at not finding anyone, she started down the hallway back to the office.

Not that far down the hall, she moved aside to avoid running into a handful of people walking past. She couldn't help glancing back, curious about why they were there. She noticed one of them dropping a book. Quickly, she moved to pick it up and return it to its owner.

"Excuse me!" Barbara made sure she spoke loud enough for them to hear her. They stopped and turned to look at her, wondering what she wanted. "One of you dropped this." She held out the fallen book.

"Oh, my book!" A small child's voice suddenly spoke from inside the circle, coming out to reclaim it. He had short black hair and dark eyes, and he wore a light blue uniform jacket with brown shorts.

"You should be more careful with your books, Selim," A much taller gentleman said from the center of the group. He had a blue military uniform on, the jacket was much longer than the other uniforms she'd seen. His hair was slicked back and he wore a black eye patch over his left eye.

"Thank you for giving it back!" The boy, Selim, smiled up at her, taking the book.

"Uh… yeah, no prob…" Barbara mumbled, just barley managing a small nod. She was instantly frozen on the spot. The pair of them gave her the creeps, and she had no idea why.

The taller man looked down at her wondering why she suddenly froze up on them.

"Are you alright my dear?" She looked absolutely terrified.

"I… u-um…" Barbara choked out, sounding scared and about to cry.

"Brother, I'm sure she's fine!"

"She's taking too long!"

Two familiar voices echoed down the hallway towards them. The pair of them didn't even get the chance to say her name before she had run over to hide behind Al.

"Barb?" Al turned his head, moving an arm up to try and see her. She was shaking slightly, trying to keep herself hidden away.

"Barb? Did something happen?" Ed quickly went into concerned big brother mode.

"Is she okay?" Selim asked, trying to see around Al. He was curious to why she was so afraid.

"Oh, is she your sister?" The taller gentleman with the eye patch asked. He was looking from Ed to the hiding girl, obviously noticing their physical similarities.

"Fuhrer King Bradley!" Ed and Al exclaimed at the same time. Not that they didn't think they'd ever bump into the man, just he was Fuhrer and all. They saw him standing there patiently waiting for them to reply to his question.

"Yeah, she's just visiting," Ed blurted out without much thought. "She's not used to everything in a big city."

"What's wrong, Barb?" Al asked gently, still trying his best to see her face, but she kept herself mostly hidden behind him.

"I want to go back…" Barbara said softly, looking like she wanted to crawl into Al's armor.

"Ah, I see… Well I hope she enjoys her stay in Central," King Bradley said with a smile. "Now, come along, Selim."

"Okay, Father." Selim nodded and followed after him.

"Come on… What's wrong? You can tell us," Ed tried to coax her into telling them what happened. But she just shook her head and just repeated, "'I want to go back…"

"Will you tell us once we get back to the office?" Al asked, turning around to head back to the office. This time all they got was silence as she continued to hide from everyone in the hallway.

The brothers looked at one another worried.

"Do you think she knows?" Selim asked quietly as he looked back to the retreating trio.

"Starting to wonder that myself…" King Bradley replied. "We might want to keep an eye on her."

When they arrived back at the office, Barbara was still clinging to Al as much as she possibly could. Ed was trying to coax her into talking, but she was refusing, making him a little frustrated.

"What's wrong?" Hawkeye couldn't help but notice the way she was attached to Al.

"She won't tell us!" Ed exclaimed, sounding very annoyed "We found her in the hallway with the Fuhrer."

"Do you think he scared her…? He is quite tall…" Al commented, attempting to come up with a reason.

Barbara wasn't even listening anymore. She just wanted to hide, run away even, and she wasn't exactly sure why. Those two had just terrified her! She wanted her uncle… She wanted an adult…

"What's going on?" Roy asked, making his way over after hearing the ruckus in the office. "Did something happen?"

Barbara looked over at Roy and suddenly ran over, hugging him and burying her face in his chest.

Roy froze on the spot unsure of what to do. Why did she run over to him? Wasn't she closer to the boys? He felt her shaking and a small sniffle escaped from her. All Roy could manage to do was hug her back gently. He wasn't the greatest when it came to an upset woman.

"What happened?" He looked over at the boys seeing the scowl across Ed's face.

Ed was furious she had run over to Roy. Not that it was necessarily  _Roy_ , but it was just the fact that he was right there. Sure he didn't exactly have a clue what to do with an upset girl, but it's not like he wouldn't try.

"She won't tell us. She just ran over and hid behind me when she heard us coming down the hall," Al explained. "The Fuhrer and his son were in the hallway with her."

"They were both also just as confused about why she was scared." Ed started to wonder if Al might have been right. She hadn't even looked over at King Bradley and his son—just kept herself hidden away from them.

"Just take her back into your office, Sir." Hawkeye sighed as if she couldn't believe what she was saying. "Once she calms down she'll let you go," she continued, motioning towards Barbara who had a firm grip on Roy's uniform.

Roy just nodded, not about to question Hawkeye. If it meant getting out of work for awhile, he was all over it.

"Boys, how about you two go to the library for a few hours? You haven't done any research for a while now."

"But...!" Ed and Al both started to protest not wanting to leave Barb, even if they knew she was going to be in good hands.

"I'll keep a good eye on them," Hawkeye reassured the boys, knowing full well the reason they didn't want to leave. "We'll all be waiting for you to come back."

"I guess we could do some research for a bit..." Ed glanced at Roy and Barb, who were now sitting on the sofa. She was practically cuddling against him. Just what had gotten her so scared? And why did she go to Roy?

"Come on, Brother" Al didn't want to leave either, but Hawkeye was right. They hadn't really done any research since Barbara had come to stay with them. Not that he was blaming her for it. They couldn't just leave her alone with someone after her.

The boys reluctantly left the office, making their way to the library for a few hours. Hawkeye reassured them that they would wait in the office until they returned later that evening.

Roy let out a small sigh, not quite sure what to do with her. He was nowhere near an expert on these matters, despite popular belief. All he could do was rub her back gently, trying to soothe her in some way and hoping it would help her relax and finally calm down.

"You're safe now," Roy finally said after a few minutes of silence. "Nothing is going to hurt you. What happened?"

"I-I don't like them…" Barbara finally said after another few minutes of silence while pulling away from Roy and rubbing her eyes. "They gave me the creeps…" She cleared her throat, trying to calm herself down. She hated to get upset, but those two… They had scared her so badly, and she had no real idea why.

"Don't like who?" Roy was quite confused at the moment, who was she talking about? "What do you mean they gave you the creeps?"

"T-That little boy… and his father in the hallway…" Barbara's hands started to shake at the thought of them.

"The Fuhrer and his son…?" Roy blinked, why on earth would she get a creepy feeling from those two? Selim was just a little boy, and King Bradley wasn't exactly creepy.

Barbara nodded a little, looking over at Roy, "I can't explain it… They just scared me." She stared at him with pleading eyes. "Be careful with them… Please?"

"Pardon…?" Roy was still confused by what she was saying. Why would he need to be careful with them?

"Be careful with them… Please," Barbara repeated locking her eyes with Roy's.

"Yes…?" Roy blinked, not having a clue what he was agreeing to.

Barbara smiled, leaning over on the sofa to hug him. "Thank you."

Roy seemed frozen on the spot unsure of what to do.

"Oh… Your cologne. It smells like Uncle's…" she mumbled, nuzzling her face against his chest.

"Really?" Roy felt her suddenly relax against him. He moved his arm to run his fingers through her hair. She made a small content and almost purring sigh. At least she wasn't upset anymore.

"Mmm…." Barbara half nodded, "Said… it reminded him of… some…one…" she trailed off, falling asleep cuddled up to Roy.

"Barbara…?" Roy moved his head to the side slightly and found her asleep, using him as a large pillow. He chuckled a little, still running his fingers through her hair while she slept.

_Her Uncle used cologne that reminded him of someone…?_  He couldn't help wondering what she meant.


	8. Chapter 8

Barbara let out a heavy sigh lying across the sofa on her stomach in Roy’s office. She was bored out of her mind, being cooped up inside for over a month now. Sure she knew why she was kept inside and never left alone, but it still didn’t mean she wouldn’t get cabin fever.

“Can we go outside or something…?” Barb half mumbled into the pillow she was resting her chin on not moving on the couch.

“Why do you want to go outside for?” Ed asked, not looking over while reading a book.

“I’m boooooooored” Barb let out another heavy sigh, this time burying her face down into the pillow.

Roy couldn’t help but chuckle behind his desk; he could just imagine Ed doing the same thing. This earned him a half-glare from Ed who seemed to know what he was thinking. “Give her a break, Fullmetal. She’s been stuck inside with us for weeks. Anyone would want a change of scenery” 

Al didn’t say anything and only nodded his head seeming to be pondering on this. The Colonel was right about that, the only time they were out was to get food before heading to the flat. That was never longer than twenty minutes at the most.

“Oh, I guess you have a point…” Ed said, glancing over at Barbara on the couch. She still had her face, face down into the pillow. He was going to suggest that she draw or read a book, but he knew she’d say she was bored of doing both. 

“Is there anything you want to do, Barbara?” Roy asked, watching her lift her head up to look at him. Her hair was sticking up in a few places making it look like she had just rolled out of bed making him chuckle once again.

“Go outside or something…? Doesn’t have to be far…” Barbara let out a slight huff annoyed like sound, glancing over at the window behind Roy. She tilted her head to the side a moment, lifting herself up off the sofa with her elbows trying to get a better look at something.

Roy blinked quite confused and turned to see what had caught her attention. Perhaps it was a bird? They did like to perch on the windowsill from time to time.

Before he even had a chance to fully turn around to look, Barbara already sprung up from the couch and rushed over to the window.

“It’s snowing!” Barbara exclaimed, with a large grin on her face. Her hands palm side down onto the glass.

Roy chuckled leaning back in his chair, which was now fully turned around towards the window “It would appear that it is” he sat there observing her a moment, she was so excited over the snow, just like a small child would be.

Barbara glanced around at the snow outside still smiling away “Wow…! Must have been snowing for awhile, most of the ground is covered” she turned her head back towards the room “Can we go play out in the snow?! I bet it’s the awesome packy snow!”

“Packy…. Snow?” Ed and Al both said in unison and quite confused on what she was talking about. She sometimes said the oddest things.

Roy couldn’t help himself but burst out laughing, she was acting just like a small child and asking her parents’ permission if she can go outside and play in the snow. 

“Yeah, Packy snow! The best kind to make snowmen and snow balls with!” Barbara looked back out the window grinning.

“I’ve never heard of that term before” Roy chuckled. He couldn’t help but find this all adorable.

“Yeah, us either” Ed said marking the page in his book “I guess we could go out in the snow for a bit… but you don’t exactly have a winter jacket or anything”

“I got the big sweater” Barbara spoke turning around and walking over to the sofa to grab the large blue sweater that was draped over the back, tugging it on over her head “Just cuz it’s snowing out, doesn’t mean it’s really cold out anyway” She mumbled through the fabric.

“But your hands are going to get cold!” Al couldn’t help but start to fret. He didn’t want her to get frost bite or something.

Barbara giggled through the sweater and continued giggling after she finally poked her head out. The hood half covering her eyes a moment before she pulled it back so she could see. “I can use the sweater sleeves. There way too long on me anyway, see” She held up her hands to prove the sleeves were longer. They sat almost an inch over her hands making it easy for her to cover them completely.

“Won’t keep them warm for long you know” Ed half rolled his eyes with a small smirk. She was determined to head out into the cold no matter what.

“We’ll worry about that when it happens!” Barbara flashed a quick grin over at him. Before dashing out of Roy’s office, laughing and yelling “Snoooooow!”

Ed stood there a moment blinking. Did she just…? “Wait…! What are you, five?!” He half growled as he dashed off after her. 

“Ed! Your jacket!” Al called after, grabbing Ed’s coat from the coat rack as he followed suit.

Roy had just turned around in his chair to see Ed chasing Barbara out of the room and with Al bounding behind. He sat there a moment taking in what he just saw, and then burst out laughing in his chair. Everyone else in the other room watched the trio dash off before looking to see Roy practically busting a gut in his chair.

Barbara jumped down the last two steps on the stairway that lead into the building, giggling away before dashing off to the right. It had a small patch of landscape they could run about on, which also happened to be under the window to Roy’s office.

“Barb!!” Ed stopped at the top of the stairs, glancing around quickly. He spotted her grabbing some snow in her hands and throwing it up into the air, laughing all the while.

“Ed!” Al sighed, dropping the jacket over Ed’s head “You’ll catch a cold if you don’t put a jacket on!”

“Hey..!” Ed quickly moved the coat off his head to glare up at Al “Tell her that!” he pointed over to Barbara who was looking up at the sky, looking as if she was trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue.

“Well… she does have a sweater on, I guess…?” Al rubbed the back of his head a bit unsure “We’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t stay out too long.”

“Yeah, yeah” Ed muttered, pulling on his coat making sure it was buttoned up “Geez… she’s acting like a little kid! She does realize someone is after her, right?!” he grumbled some more heading down the steps.

Al chuckled following after “Oh come on, Ed. Just let her have some fun. Also sounds like to me that you’re really worried about her, brother” 

“Course I am! I don’t want whoever to kidnap her and what not” Ed jumped down the last two steps and looked over at her. A snow flake just landed on her nose, making her burst into laughter. He couldn’t help but smile, he wasn’t sure why, but seeing her so happy kind of made him happy. 

“Hey, Ed…” Al spoke a bit softly.

“Mmm…?” Ed barley responded his attention was else ware, he was making sure to keep an eye on her.

“Will you think it’s weird if I say she feels like… a sister or something…?” Al fidgeted slightly, not at all sure how Ed was going to react to it.

“Huh…?!” Ed spun around to look up at Al confused “What are you talking about?”

“Well… um…” Al continued to fidget where he was standing “I can’t really explain it… just… we get along so well” He looked down at his brother starting up at him “I get this weird feeling we know her or she knows us…” he looked down at the ground, semi playing with the fabric on his loin cloth “I-It’s stupid… forget I mentioned it…”

Ed let out a deep sigh and placed his hand on Al’s armor “It’s not stupid, Al” He smiled up at his brother “I actually get the same feeling, you know? I mean. We’ve only known her for what, a month or two? And it feels like I’ve known her forever”

Al looked at Ed quite surprised “Really… you too?!” He felt so relieved he felt the same way he did.

“Yes, really” Ed smiled up at Al, tapping his chest plate again. He was about to say something else when something cold and hard hit the back of his head “What the hell!?!” He twirled around and saw Barbara standing a few feet away, grinning at him. 

Ed paused again, that grin of hers… why is it so familiar? He grumbled, quickly shaking his head to clear his thoughts, and also to get the left over snow off “What was that for?!”

“Bulls eye!!” Barbara beamed, while making another snowball in her hands.

“Wait a minu-!” Ed then got a snowball in the face, followed by Barbara’s laugher. Not to mention Al giggling behind him “Why you!!!” He knelt down to grab a pile of snow in his hands making a quick snowball to throw in her direction.

Barbara laughed and dodged, grabbing some snow to make a quick snowball, throwing it at Ed. But he moved out of the way, and it hit Al in the chest “I meant to do that!” she laughed even more.

“Yeah right!” Ed snorted, with a small smirk on his face grabbing some more snow into his hands. He was going to get her back for hitting him twice with a snowball!

“Snowball fight!!” Barbara exclaimed excitedly, throwing another snowball at Al who stood there a moment confused. 

He didn’t expect her to throw a snowball at him; he assumed she’d just go after Ed. Not that no one else would play with him like that, it just didn’t happen all that often. He couldn’t help but beam, best he could anyway, and grabbed some snow to throw back at her.

Roy heard what sounded like laughter outside. He blinked a bit confused on what it was. That was until he heard Ed yelling something, followed by a fit of giggles from someone else. He got up from his chair and looked outside. There right below his office window he saw the three of them throwing snowballs at one another. Laughing away having a real good time, he started to smile watching them.

It always made him happy when he saw the Elric brothers having fun, acting like the teenagers they are. Not having to deal with adult situations and just having a wonderful time. The boys were being awfully rough with her though, she didn’t seem to mind, and or all that fazed by it. Made him wonder what they were like to her when he wasn’t around, did they treat her like one of the guys? He was sure Ed would, but Al was a different story.

He soon laughed when it looked like Al and Barbara were teaming up against Ed, who was obviously unhappy about it. He could hear a faint, ‘Al! You trader!!’ through the glass. 

“Hmm…”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“No fair! AL!!!” Ed yelled from behind his snow fort, watching a semi larger snow ball go whizzing by.

“Plenty fair!” Al laughed while making another snowball.

Ed was going to yell something back, when he saw a snowball fly past his head going the wrong way “Wha…?” He blinked a bit confused, turning to see where it came from. He saw Roy smirking at him as he packed another snowball “I don’t need your help Bastard!” he snarled at him while making another snowball.

“Well, it is two against one” Roy smirked, watching Ed getting knocked over by two snowballs to the head.

“Tch…!” Ed quickly jumped back up to his feet, cleaning off the snow still left on him “Fine! But I still don’t need your help” Ed grumbled, packing a snowball throwing it over at Al and Barb’s fort.

Snowballs flew from either fort, once or awhile hitting one another in the face or chest. The four of them were laughing away and having a great time.

Ed however, being the more completive one, decided to end the snow ball fight once and for all. He went to clap his hands to create something to help him win.

A gun shot was heard making the four of them jump, dropping whatever they had in their hands and look over at the source. Hawkeye stood at the bottom of the stairs, with her arm held up to the sky. The gun was still smoking after the round she shot up. The people, who happened to be around, had all stopped dead in their tracks.

“It’s about time you ALL came inside” Hawkeye spoke with a deadly tone, moving her arm down. Glaring especially over at Roy, he has work to do. He was lucky she allowed him such a break. It was only because she wanted to see if he’d get flattened in the snow. She was quite satisfied that he was hit by quite a few snowballs in the face.

“Ah… right” Roy got up, wiping off his coat. He turned to help Ed up off the ground, holding out his hand to him.

Ed blinked up at Roy hesitating a moment before accepting Roy’s help. He was tugged up to his feet and stumbled forward, bumping into Roy’s chest.

“Whoa, careful” Roy chuckled taking a step back, almost falling backwards into the snow. He had gripped onto Ed’s shoulders to steady them both and ended up pulling him closer to himself.

Ed faintly blushed, pulling away quickly adjusting his coat. Roy couldn’t help but laugh, he was pretty sure the boy was blushing. It was a little harder to tell as their faces were all red from the cold.

“What?!” Ed snapped, glaring up at him trying to keep his face hidden.

“Nothing, nothing” Roy smiled and turned to walk towards the stairs.

Ed frowned and followed after with Al and Barbara not far behind him. By the time they all arrived back at the office the three of them were shivering.

“G-Guess it was cold out” Barbara giggled a little, through chattering teeth.

“More like we were outside too long” Roy nodded, hanging up his wet coat.

“Hurry up and take that sweater off” Ed basically demanded as he took off his own coat and hung it up next to Roy’s. He wasn’t about to let her get a cold and get sick.

“Yeah, yeah” Barbara giggled, tugging off the sweater off over her head and went to hang it up with the coats. She hugged herself and started to rub her arms to warm up.

“The three of you sit on the sofa” Hawkeye ordered them. Walking into the room with a large blanket folded in her arms “The three of you need to warm up, your all shivering”

Barbara didn’t even protest, she plopped herself onto the very right of the sofa. Ed sighed and followed after sitting down next to her. Roy wasn’t far behind and sat next to Ed, placing him in the middle. 

Hawkeye started to unfolded the blanket as Al came in with a small tray that held three mugs filled with hot chocolate. 

“Hot chocolate!” Barbara cheered and reached out to take one of the mugs.

Hawkeye chuckled lowly “Wait until you get the blanket” she placed the blanket over their laps so they could drink the hot chocolate to get warmed up. She also made sure to give Barbara more of the blanket; she was shivering more than the boys.

Al giggled and handed her one “Careful, it’s a little hot”

“Thank you!” Barbara smiled taking the mug, holding it in her hands “Time to defrost my hands” she blew into the mug to cool it down a little before taking a sip.

“Welcome” Al beamed and handed Ed his next “No, there isn’t any milk in it before you ask”

Ed wrinkled his nose slightly as he took the cup “I wasn’t going to ask you that” he mumbled what sounded like a low, ‘thanks’, before taking a sip from his mug.

“Uh-huh, course not” Al sounded as if he was smirking and handed a mug over to Roy.

“Thank you, Alphonse” Roy smiled taking the mug, blowing on it to cool it down.

“You can’t have milk?” Barbara asked curiously, glancing over at him. Ed blinked at her a bit confused, unable to respond as he was taking a drink from his mug. 

“No. He just doesn’t like milk” Al said with a small sigh, he really needed to figure out how to get him to drink it. “Why do you ask?”

Ed half glared up at Al before looking at Barbara, swallowing what he had in his mouth “Milk is disgusting that’s why!”

Barbara let out a small giggle at Ed’s reaction. “It’s because my Uncle can’t have it. What’s the word, or term…?” she tilted her head in thought a moment “Lactose in tolerant…?”

“Really?” Ed sounded quite curious about this term. He started to ponder if he could tell people he was lactose in tolerant and if they’d believe him.

“You aren’t lactose in tolerant, Fullmetal” Roy got a small glare from Ed. It only made him smirk over at him “You just refuse to drink it, milk is good for you” he glanced around Ed from the front to see Barbara “You like milk, don’t you?”

“I like it, especially with cereals and with cookies” Barbara took a sip from her mug, still warming her hands with it.

“See, Fullmetal. Even Barbara like’s milk” Roy was going to say it helped her in getting taller, but she was around the same height as Edward, and looked about the same age. The pair of them had to be around five two, he was actually surprised that Edward even gotten over five feet tall. Then again… she was a girl, and it was fine for girls to be a bit shorter than boys.

“BITE ME!” Ed snarled at Roy, sipping from his mug to get out of talking. The damn bastard was always teasing and trying to get him to drink the gross stuff! Milk wasn’t going to help him get taller anyway. He glanced over at Roy and narrowed his eyes at him. Not like Roy should talk, he wasn’t an overly tall man, and he knows he drinks milk. 

“Hurry and get warmed up” Hawkeye said with her eyes dangerously low “You have a lot of work to do, Sir”

“Ah, yes I do” Roy smiled a bit, sipping from his mug as he glanced away not wanting to meet her gaze.

“We will!” Barbara smiled “The three of us are all on the sofa and giving each other body heat” 

Ed turned a light shade of pink at the mention of, ‘giving each other body heat’ “A-And the hot chocolate!” he half stammered “I-er-mean…! The hot chocolate and the blanket are making us warm, y-yeah!” His face turned a dark shade of red and glanced over to his right, meeting Barbara’s gaze.

Barbara giggled lowly at him, giving him a small nod. She couldn’t help but notice Ed getting all flustered, especially around Roy.

“Brother…? You okay?” Al asked sounding a bit worried.

“I’m fine!” Ed half grumbled now looking down at his mug half glaring at it.

Roy couldn’t help but laugh. Edward all flustered was quite adorable, wait… did he just think Edward adorable? It was his turn now to flush and glance over at the window.

Al stood there quite confused. Just why were the two of them getting red for? They should have warmed up a bit by now. He sighed and sat down on the other sofa across from the other one.

Hawkeye just gave a small smirk before leaving the room, boys were quite stupid sometimes.

A few minutes past and no one really spoke. They just drank the hot chocolate warming them from the wintery activities outside. Barbara had moved her legs up to sit crossed legged, to warm her cold feet. Ed had only crossed his right leg under his left, at an attempt to warm it. Roy seemed quite content with keeping his feet just under the blanket. 

Roy suddenly felt a small weight against his right shoulder, making him glance down at the source. He found Edward there leaning against him, with even slow breaths. He couldn’t help but smile at the boys sleeping face. Roy couldn’t completely see Ed’s face, but what he could see he looked so peaceful sleeping against him. 

Without even thinking Roy had wrapped his arm around Ed, pulling him closer to himself. Cuddling him and was about to place his head over Ed’s when he heard a small chuckle from his right. He peeked over Ed’s head and saw Barbara looking over at him, them, with a sweet little smile on her face. He couldn’t help but picture Ed with the same smile. She didn’t say a word and just smiled at them, sipping her hot chocolate.

The mug in Ed’s hands was starting to slip out of them, he had fallen asleep and what grip he had on the mug was being removed. Roy went to move it before it fell, his hand came in contact with smaller fingers, and Barbara had reached over to grab it too, getting to it first.

Barbara smiled up at him still with same little smile and spoke softly “I’ll take yours, too” she placed her mug on her lap and moved the other one into her hand to take Roy’s. Roy gave a smile of thanks and handed his over to her, watching her place them onto the coffee table in front of them.

Al chuckled lowly to himself, if only his brother was awake. He’d being having a field day at Roy being so close and cuddling him. He watched them cuddled together like that, and couldn’t help but think that they did look cute together like that. Also made him want to be cuddled… 

Roy let out a small yawn and finally resting his head against Ed’s, closing his eyes as he did. He wasn’t sure why he was so tired, he didn’t exactly do a whole lot today. Sure they had gone out to play in the snow, but they weren’t out there that long… were they?

“Yo, Boss?” Havoc said a few minutes later, popping his head in from the doorway.

“Shhh”

Havoc blinked confused, glancing towards the sound and saw Barbara with a finger over her mouth, giggling lowly. He was about to ask why he was being, ‘shushed’, when he saw Roy and Ed asleep against one another. He stood there a moment wondering if he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing. 

He suddenly grinned. He just had to take a picture of this! He dashed back out into the larger office. Grabbing his camera, he just so happened to have, and came back into Roy’s office. He plopped himself down next to Al to get the picture, and steadied himself to line everyone up on the couch. Barbara had glanced over at the camera with a small smile on her face as she was taking a sip from her mug. While Roy and Ed had no idea what was going on, the pair of them were just sleeping soundly cuddled up to one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness sorry for taking so long to update! I will try not too in the future =D
> 
>  
> 
> [Bonus pic~](http://windrider01.deviantart.com/#/d5ny2wr)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious girl appears who looks just like Edward Elric, and she knows Roy's alchemy. Now Roy, Ed, and Al must discover who she is before the secret destroys them all. Roy/Ed. Uses both animes and the manga.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So terribly sorry for taking a million years to update this, it has been a hectic few years, especially last year...  
> However! I am determined to finish this story! Enjoy and thank you so much for reading and being patient with me means a lot *hugs everyone*

Al sat on the couch in the living room while reading one of the many books he borrowed from the library, it kept him occupied while everyone else slept. He didn’t even notice one of them had got up until he saw the light coming out from the bathroom. The light lingered on longer then it should have, even if Ed was half asleep he always rushed back into bed and sometimes half stumbling into a wall as he did.

He turned his head expecting to see his older brother, but saw Barbara standing in the doorway instead. She was rubbing one of her eyes, looking exhausted and extremely tired. It seemed as if she wasn’t getting a lot of sleep lately and tended to nap while in the Colonel’s office on the sofa. “Barb…?” He called out to her softly marking the page in his book and going to get up to move to her side. 

Barbara yawned and glanced over at him with a small smile followed by a lazy wave. He was still worried she was using her leg too much, even after the doctor saying it was practically all healed. It still bothered her once and awhile as to be expected, but he still wanted to make sure she didn’t hurt herself anymore. It was really sweet and all! Just he really shouldn’t worry so much about her. She rubbed one of her eyes as she walked over to sit next to him on the couch before he could get up to help her over. “Can I stay out here with you? I… can’t really sleep.”

Al was stunned a moment as she seemed to half cuddle up beside him on the couch. No one has done that since he gotten his armoured body, he quickly realized he was staring when she looked up at him with her head titled to the side curiously. “O-Oh! I don’t mind at all.” He shook his head quickly making her giggle up at him. 

“Thanks” Barbara smiled and turned slightly to the side to grab a blanket that was draped over the couch to wrap herself with. “What are you reading?” She leaned over further to try and peer into the contents of the book, her head resting lightly against his armour.

“Just a novel I picked up from the library.” Al said as he tilted it slightly so she could see the cover instead of the chapter he was reading. “I was looking over some of our notes earlier and then decided it would be best to take a break to read a novel for awhile.” 

“Makes sense,” Barbara nodded with a small yawn. “Looking at work notes for so long would make you go cross eyed, or something…?” She chuckled, leaning against Al a bit more. 

“You look really tired…” Al said moving his arm slightly in hopes to make her more comfortable, if that was possible next to him. As soon as his arm moved up she seemed to cuddle closer making him have to rest his arm around her. 

“You aren’t going to get after me too for not sleeping right, are you?” Barbara asked, looking up at Al slightly with tired eyes.

“We are only concerned… you haven’t been sleeping well at night and taking naps in the office quite often.” Al heard her sigh a bit annoyed and glanced down at her. She had her head resting on his chest, with her face facing away from him.

“I keep having that dream…” Barbara half mumbled through the blanket, pulling it tighter around herself.

“What dream?” Al asked softly, not even realising he was starting to run his fingers through her hair. Also taking note she never asked why he was still awake, people always asked that question. 

“The same one with my uncle…” Barbara could feel herself starting to drift to sleep as he ran his fingers through her hair gently, she found it quite relaxing. “… And I didn’t think Ed would let me crawl into his bed….” She yawned slightly, half nuzzling her face against him with her eyes slowly starting to close.

Al couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of her crawling into Ed’s bed and he could only imagine his brother acting grumpy about it. “Not sure if he’d wake up if you did, and I’m sorry to hear you keep having that dream…”He felt a bit useless as he wanted to help her somehow.

“It is the last thing I really remember…” She paused a moment with a large yawn, her eyes now finally closed. “… I just feel safer…. with you all around….” 

“It was something very traumatic and it only makes sense that it was the first thing you remembered. Or still remembered?” Al leaned his head slightly trying to see if she was awake or not. “I’m glad we all make you feel safe, Barb.” Al knew that she was sound asleep now upon hearing a soft snore like sound come from her that was almost purr like. He chuckled and went back to reading his book feeling quite happy and content as he helped her fall asleep while continuing to play with her hair softly. At least she will be getting some sleep here at the flat, though her sleeping at the office and using Ed’s lap as a pillow most of the time was quite cute. His brother at first would get so flustered but eventually would relax and ended up playing with her hair just like he was now. 

~--------

Once Al noticed the clock was telling him it was eight in the morning, he carefully moved from the couch not to wake Barbara as he went to the kitchen. He wanted to get a start on breakfast while the other two were sleeping. He had just opened the fridge when he heard a yawn behind him making him glance back and saw a sleepy Barbara in the doorway. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Mmm?” Barbara rubbed her eyes as she cocked her head to the side not quite sure what Al had just asked her. It took her a moment to register what he said and made her chuckle as she shook her head lightly. “No you didn’t wake me, my belly did.” It suddenly growled making her flush.

Al chuckled and looked into the fridge to see if there was anything she could munch on while he figured out what to make for breakfast. He spotted some cheese still left and took it out of the fridge to hold out to her. “You can eat this so your stomach stops growling while I try and figure out what to make for breakfast.”

“Okay, thanks” Barbara beamed as she took the cheese and took a bite wanting her stomach to stop growling so loudly. “So.... if Ed doesn’t like milk, then does he not like ice cream or cheese?” She couldn’t remember if he ate any of the cheese they had bought a few days before to snack on. 

“He actually likes those.” Al chuckled, taking out a carton of eggs from the fridge. “I think he told me that he tries not to think about it or it just isn’t the same? As Milk is thicker and gross and comes straight from the cow? While Cheese and Ice cream takes a bit more to be made. Guess he just dislikes, or hates milk as it is coming straight from the source.” He would need to ask him one of these days as he was now curious.

“Weird...” Barbara mumbled as she took another bite from the cheese. “Oh! I just had an idea.” She grinned, moving over to stand next to Al who just opened the carton of eggs to find only two inside. “That won’t be enough for eggs.... but um!” She bounced on her toes as she continued to grin up at Al. “You could sneak some milk into his food.”

Al chuckled as she was now bouncing beside him with a grin matching his brothers once again. “What do you mean, sneak it in? He would probably notice the milk right away in it.” He was curious on her idea and why she was suddenly suggesting it. It then dawned on him she was worried he wasn’t getting enough calcium in his system.

“You put in... hmm going to use a spoonful as a reference as I tend to just eyeball it when I add milk to the eggs. Just don’t want too much and him realizing you added milk in, think when you add some in it makes them fluffier or something?” She scratched the back of her neck not overly sure. “I used some when I made scrambled eggs a few times and I don’t think he noticed.”

If Al was in his human body he would be blinking at her in awe as he never thought to do that! “I will keep this in mind, thank you! Got any other ways to sneak milk into things?” He leaned down closer to her afraid if they spoke any louder Ed would come waltzing into the kitchen and hear them. 

“Well....”

Ed rolled over in his sleep and let out a large yawn as he stretched out cat like on his bed. He glanced over to the bed across from his and saw it empty, “What time is it…?” he half mumbled out loud to himself. Finally sitting up to rub his face with his flesh hand and taking a moment to wake himself up. She must already be awake and chatting away with Al in the kitchen, that or she was having a shower while Al was cooking breakfast. He slowly wandered out of the room to the kitchen with another yawn while rubbing the back of his head. “Was for breakfast?”

Al jumped as he didn’t expect his brother to get up on his own as he usually stayed sound asleep until he woke him. “Brother! Ummm!” He glanced at the counter at the carton of eggs that only had two eggs left and the bag of bread that also had the same amount left. “I was going to make some scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon but we are out of everything.”

“Morning!” Barbara grinned over at him and tried not to giggle but was failing miserably. Partly because Al jumped up so high in surprise thinking that Ed overheard them and also Ed’s hair was a mess sticking up everywhere. 

Ed was just about to ask the pair what was going on and to find out what they were going to do for breakfast when he heard a knock on the door. “Who could that be?” He growled with a low huff while stalking over to the door and peeked out the small peep hole to see Roy standing on the other side. This was unusual he never came over to their place, well more so this early in the morning anyway. Ed huffed as he unlocked the door and glared up at him. “Why you here so early?” He half growled still a bit half asleep.

Roy blinked when Ed opened the door and growled at him asking, more like demanding why he was there. He couldn’t help but smile and let out a chuckle seeing that Ed had just woken up himself due to his hair being messier than usual. “I thought a bit of a change of pace would be nice and walk with you three to work. May I come in? Or do I have to stand outside until you three are ready?” Roy hoped not the latter.

Ed pretended to think about it, tapping the door lightly with his metal fingers. “I suppose…” He shrugged, stepping to the side to let him in. “Al is currently making breakfast, or at least thinking about what to make as we don’t seem to have a lot for breakfast stuff. So… if you didn’t eat yet you could join us, I suppose.” He turned on his heel facing towards the kitchen, rubbing the back of his neck as he attempted to hide the flush creeping on his cheeks. What the hell was wrong with him?! It was just Roy and it wasn’t like they didn’t have meals together once and awhile! 

Roy cocked his head to the side as Ed suddenly turned around and looked about to make a break for it to run off to another part of the apartment and leaving him at the door. “I would love to join breakfast with you three. I didn’t exactly have anything exciting for breakfast anyway.” He moved inside and closed the door softly behind himself before slipping off his shoes and pulled off his jacket to hang up with the other coats. 

“Uh, sure? Again not sure what we are having so we better go find out.” Ed motioned for Roy to follow him into the kitchen to see what they were going to be eating as he was hungry.

Roy nodded and watched Ed head towards the kitchen a moment before following after him. “Good morning, Alphonse. Good morning, Barbara” He smiled when the pair turned around to face him.

“Good morning, Colonel. What brings you here so early?” Al asked before he turned to look to see if they had any pancake batter left to make those instead.

“Morning, Roy!” Barbara grinned, bouncing over to give him a tight hug. 

Roy took note that she was strangely wide awake this morning, maybe she got some sleep last night? “Thought I’d stop by and walk you three to HQ.” Roy replied, chuckling as he hugged Barbara back as he watched Ed peek around Al to see what he was going to cook. 

“That is quite nice of you.” Al chuckled, glancing back at him and noticed how he seemed to be watching his brother moving about the kitchen. “Did you eat breakfast yet? You are more than welcome to join us as we will have plenty... once we figure out what we are having that is.” He sighed slightly as all the ingredients to make something were either finished or didn’t have enough even for one person. 

“I also happened to get up a little earlier than usual as well.” Roy shrugged slightly as he glanced down at Barbara who finally stopped hugging him and let out a yawn. “I did eat some toast but I would love some actual breakfast food, thank you.” He laughed lowly as Al was at a loss on what to make and saw all the empty containers on the counter. “Not having much luck are you?” 

“Sadly no... I could have sworn we had enough to have at least breakfast this morning. We were planning on going to get some groceries later today on our way home from the office.” Al started to regret not going the day before.

“I could pop out and get a few items to make us breakfast for you if you’d like?” Roy offered as he honestly wouldn’t mind and he could get a few other treats for them while he was at it.

“No, no I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that and besides there is a small store not even five minutes away I will be getting them from.” Al nodded, moving out of the kitchen so he could go to the small convenience store to get the eggs, bread, and some bacon for them to eat.

“Al you stay here while I go out.” Ed followed suit after his brother. Al would have everything set up in the kitchen by the time he returned and breakfast would be ready in no time.

“I’ll go!” Barbara spoke a bit louder than she meant to, just she wanted to make sure they heard her. She blinked as they all immediately turned to stare at her in shock. “I mean with Al…” She pointed over at Al and wondered if she might have said something wrong.

“Geez, I was going to say!” Ed huffed and crossed his arms as he honestly thought she meant her going by herself. They wouldn’t allow her to do that with some crazy guy after her! “Really we got it you can stay here with Must….ang…. hmmm” He narrowed his eyes at Roy not sure if he could trust her alone with him.

Roy blinked not sure why Ed was looking at him like that for. “What did I do now?” He glanced down at Barbara who started to giggle.

Al would have pinched the bridge of his nose if he was in his human body; this was getting out of hand just to make breakfast! “How about this, Barb and I go to get the eggs, bread, and bacon while you two stay here?” 

“That is a great idea!” Barbara spoke up quickly with a large smile and moved to the bedroom. “Give me a minute to change out of my-er-well Ed’s pj’s.” She then disappeared inside after closing the door.

“Hey wait a second! Don’t I get a say in this?!” Ed blinked wondering just what the hell just happened.

“You were outvoted on who was going to get the items to make breakfast.” Roy chuckled watching Ed still standing there dumbfounded. “Before you ask I don’t get a say as this is your flat.” He earned himself a glare from Ed for that.

“We will be back before you know it.” Al chuckled as he and Barbara did basically gang up on him in a way. “Also you should brush your hair it is a mess.”

“Eh?” Ed blinked and glanced up trying to see his hair as his hands moved to his head to try and find the hair that was sticking up.

“Ready!” Barbara exclaimed as she moved over to stand next to Al with a large smile. “Come on, Al we better go now before Ed stops us.” She giggled, taking Al’s hand and tugging him towards the door.

“You are awfully awake now.” Al laughed and had a small bounce to his step as she tugged him to the door. “We will be right back!” He continued laughing as Barbara tugged him out of the apartment.

“You two play nice!” Barbara said just before closing the door making Al laugh even harder and making her giggle along with him as they moved down the hall.

Ed and Roy stared at the now closed door a few moments before they glanced at one another extremely confused and both thinking, what was that all about…?

“Is she normally this, well… hyper in the morning?” Roy managed to find his voice after a few moments of silence between the pair of them.

“Umm… don’t think so?” Ed shook his head wondering if he might still be asleep. “I usually got up a half-hour to an hour later than her, and I don’t know what she is like when she gets enough sleep.” He shifted from one foot to the other before letting out a yawn. “I’m gonna brush my hair and you can help yourself to a drink from the fridge. The cups are in the cupboard just above the toaster behind you.” He motioned towards where they were before disappearing to the bathroom to find his hair was a lot messier than he thought it was. Great, Mustang probably thinks I look stupid with it like this.

Roy shook his head and let out a chuckle as he moved back to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. Was it his imagination or did Ed seem embarrassed about his hair being a mess? He didn’t think Ed would care how his hair looked around others, to a certain extent of course.

Ed came out a few moments later with his hair pulled back into its normal braid. “So um....” He started to say, moving to lean against the counter next to Roy. “What is the real reason you came over?” He eyed Roy a bit suspiciously.

Roy raised an eyebrow at Ed while he drank some water from the glass before shaking his head slightly from side to side once he placed the glass onto the counter. “I said a change of pace and I happened to get up earlier so I figured I could walk you three to work.” 

“Hmmm...” Ed tapped his fingers on the counter still not quite believing him and shrugged. “You know perfectly well Al and I can take care of her just fine on our own.”

“This isn’t about extra protection for Barbara you know.” Roy sighed wondering what had gotten into Ed this morning; he had been glaring at him since he laid eyes on him. 

“Uh-huh sure it isn’t.” Ed crossed his arms and let out an annoyed huff as he glanced over at Roy with a small glare before sighing. “So did you find anything else about this wack job?”

“You mean, Kevin?” Roy got a nod from Ed to confirm that is who he was talking about. “Sadly not a thing and not knowing his last name isn’t helping either. Barbara’s name hasn’t appeared anywhere either... it is almost as if she doesn’t exist.” He shook his head at the thought as she clearly existed, just couldn’t find a record of her anywhere.

“Dammit...” Ed growled not liking the sound of that; he really wanted to know who this Kevin asshole was. “You guys have been looking outside of Central, right? Like Drachma and all those other places for her name?”

“We are looking everywhere and still no luck.” Roy sighed, leaning back against the counter a bit more to look up at the ceiling. “We just need to hope she remembers more, like this uncle of hers. I am still curious on how he knew my fire array and taught it to her.” He wrinkled his nose slightly wondering if it might have been because of photos with him wearing the gloves perhaps. But he knew all these other arrays and they were strange, upside down and backwards from what they should be. 

“You know... some of those arrays she has drawn kind of match some I have drawn in my notebook.” Ed watched Roy standing there with his head tilted to look up at the ceiling. “Not saying he couldn’t have figured them out himself as he was clearly a genius with alchemy and Barb is pretty good herself.” He nodded and then paused a moment. “I can’t believe I forgot about that!” He groaned and covered his face with his hand.

Roy adjusted his posture and looked down at Ed confused. “What is it?”

Ed continued to grumble for another minute before fully turning to face Roy properly. “You remember when we saved her from that Vlad asshole?”

“Ed what are you getting at?” Roy crossed his arms as he narrowed his eyes at Ed slightly not sure what on earth he just realized.

“When Jennifer had called you to tell you some crazy man showed up and chased her out of the hospital. We followed a trail of mismatched alchemy all over the place before finally getting to the park to see more?”

Roy was now staring at Ed in surprise as it just dawned on him what he was getting at. “She can use alchemy!!” He exclaimed in surprise, how could he not realize this sooner?! It was staring at him in the face this whole time, how could he forget Jennifer mentioning one of the nurses seeing her use fire alchemy in the hallway. Not to mention the alchemy scattered along with Vlad’s to protect herself from him.

“Not just that but without an array!” Ed corrected him looking quite pleased with himself for a moment before his brows furrowed in concern. “Wait... that means she saw the gate to be able to do that....”

“She isn’t missing anything and the doctors gave her a clean bill of health....” Roy frowned as this mystery just seemed to get a whole lot deeper. 

“Wait you don’t think?!” Roy and Ed suddenly yelled at the same time and stared at one another.

“She lost her memory when she got to the gate?! But... she is remembering things so it can’t be... dammit!” Ed growled finally breaking the silence after a few moments and hit the counter with his metal fist.

Roy placed one of his hands over his mouth as he stared down at the floor in nothing in particular. Just what the hell was going on? They weren’t making any headway and only seemed to be asking more questions than getting answers. “Just what is going on?” He half mumbled into his hand and didn’t realize he spoke out loud.

Ed was getting more furious by the moment, just how did she end up going to the gate? How did she make it through without losing something in return? Sure her memory wasn’t the best right now but she was remembering little by little every day but she still had it intact, mostly anyway. Was it because of this Kevin guy? He really didn’t want to think it was her uncle as from the stories she told them now and again, he sounded like a really nice older guy. 

Roy let out a heavy sigh and moved his hand from his mouth as he glanced over at Ed who was clearly lost in his thoughts. Trying to glare a hole into the counter by the looks “Let’s just drop this for now and wait for.... Fullmetal?” He leaned slightly to the side as Ed wasn’t responding to him. “Did you hear me? Edward?”

Ed finally blinked and snapped out of his thoughts when Roy said his name. “Huh? What?” He looked up at Roy who was looking at him with what looked like a hint of concern in his eyes. “What? I’m fine just thinking a million things at once.” He shrugged and couldn’t seem to look away from him.

“Which concerns me” Roy let out a heavy sigh and stepped in close enough so he could rest his forehead against Ed’s. “Just drop it for now, alright? We can worry about this later today after work.” He placed his hand on Ed’s shoulder to give it a gentle squeeze, he knew that look of Ed’s all too well by now and he didn’t want him to worry over it along with trying to figure out how to get his brother back to his body.

Ed blinked confused on what Roy was doing and managed to glance down at the hand on his shoulder before looking back up at Roy. He shifted from one foot to the other not pulling away and nodded his head slightly as his voice suddenly decided to stop working.

Roy smiled softly and gave Ed’s shoulder another squeeze and noted that Ed wasn’t making a fuss or pulling away and yelling at him. Instead he was staring up at him wide eyed and not moving, he always found Ed’s golden eyes mesmerizing making it hard to look away at times. 

Ed bit the inside of his cheek slightly as he noticed the strange look Roy was giving him. “So um....” Why the hell was he looking at him like that for?! Not to mention why wasn’t he pulling away from his touch? 

Roy didn’t even realize Ed had said anything as he got lost in Ed’s eyes and leaned in closer. The blonde didn’t pull away or yelled at him for invading his personal space, could it possibly mean...? He smirked ever so slightly when that all too familiar light pink flush suddenly covered over Ed’s cheeks. His suspicion was correct; he was the one making Ed flustered quite often. Maybe he could...

Ed could feel his face getting hotter by the moment as Roy was leaning in closer and gripped his shoulder a bit harder. “Uh? Mustang?” He blinked as he caught an unfamiliar look in the older man’s eyes just before Roy finally closed the space between them, placing his lips over his. Ed’s eyes went wide as he froze not sure what to do, Roy was kissing him!! Why was?! Didn’t he like girls!?!

Roy shifted just enough to wrap his other arm at the small of Ed’s back to tug him in closer to deepen the kiss. He smiled into the kiss when he got a surprised like sound from the smaller blonde when he had pulled him in closer.

What should he do?! He had no idea about romance and never kissed anyone before! But he just couldn’t pull away as the smell of Roy’s cologne filled his nostrils, damn that wonderful smell. Damn Roy as well for suddenly kissing him like this and making his heart beat a million miles a minute. Could he have possibly known about his crush on the older man?!

Just when Ed managed to add a bit of pressure back against Roy’s lips, he caught sight of the wall clock from the corner of his eye. Had fifteen minutes really gone by that fast? He frowned slightly and moved his hands to push at Roy and growled lowly when he didn’t seem to budge the first time, thankfully he did the second time. “W-Will you just!” He had to move his hand over Roy’s mouth before he could lean back in to kiss him again. 

Roy blinked when Ed now pushed him away, but he wasn’t showing signs before he didn’t want him to? What suddenly changed his mind to push him away now, he would have responded but he couldn’t with Ed’s hand firmly placed over his mouth. “mmm?” Was all he could say as he looked down at Ed’s now bright red face.

“Not that I wanted to uh, stop and um...” Ed wrinkled his nose as that didn’t sound right and he could just feel Roy smiling under his hand. “I mean...! Dammit! Look Al and Barb aren’t back yet and they should have been about eight minutes ago!” He growled and finally moved his hand so Roy could speak and pointed at the clock with his other hand.

“Wait, what?” Roy blinked down at Ed and glanced over at the clock he was pointing at. “They might be getting an extra few things or there is a bit of a line up.” He slowly let go of Ed and made sure he was standing on his own two feet as he realized he had semi dipped him. “But we should go look for them anyway.” He nodded and couldn’t help but smile down at Ed as he had kissed him back; sure it was faintly as he was quite sure Ed had never kissed anyone before, which he felt quite pleased on getting his first kiss. Also his suspicion Ed had secretly liked him was proved true; it still worried him as Ed was a lot younger than he was. But at least it wasn’t one sided. 

“I’m gonna go with or without you!” Ed huffed and stormed out of the kitchen to the bedroom to get dressed as he was still in his tank top and boxers. He needed to calm down and get his head to stop spinning. It was a relief, in a way that Roy had liked him enough to suddenly kiss him like that! Wait... wasn’t that kiss a bit too hard for a first kiss? He grumbled as he quickly gotten dressed and did all he could to will that damn blush from his face.

Roy watched Ed go to the bedroom before moving to the door to slip on his boots and to tug on his coat. He knew he was probably smiling like a fool but he didn’t care, he had finally kissed Ed and he wanted to do it again. No, no he couldn’t and needed to wait until Ed was officially an adult... shit should he have not have kissed him in the first place? Ed broke him from his thoughts when he came over to tug on his boots and slipped on his coat quickly. 

“Ready?” Ed asked as he opened the door after making sure he had the apartment key in his other hand.

“After you.” Roy smiled and chuckled when Ed rolled his eyes and walked out first and actually held the door open for him. “Ed... about that kis-” He blinked when Ed moved his hand over his mouth and his face was turning a bright scarlet. 

“Later! We got more important things to worry about right now!” Ed growled as he did his best to glare up at Roy and he had a feeling it didn’t come off as menacing as he had hoped it was. He quickly locked the door before moving down the hallway towards the stairs with Roy in toe.

“Of course.” Roy nodded as he jogged after Ed who was moving rather quickly to get out of the building. He couldn’t blame him as the two should have been back long ago. His stomach suddenly knotted as he suddenly had a bad feeling and he was quite sure Ed was feeling the same as he was moving so quickly towards the nearby corner store.

Ed had his hands clenched as he walked down the sidewalk after leaving the apartment building. He was getting a bad feeling deep down in the pit of his stomach the closer they got to the corner store and not seeing Al or Barb on the way. 

Roy just managed to catch up to Ed to walk, more like run beside him when they noticed a paper bag lying on the ground. A few items scattered about on the pavement looking as if there was a scuffle that had happened not all that long ago. They glanced at one another and rushed over to the scene and found some fresh blood on the ground on some of the bread.

“You don’t think?!” Ed glanced over at Roy who had his eyebrows furrowed deeply as he looked down at the scene in front of them. “Dammit...!!!”


	10. Chapter 10

“Ngh…” Barbara half groaned out, trying to come back to her senses. It felt like someone hit her over the head with a bag of bricks. She could hear voices talking, no… yelling back and forth at one another. Opening an eye a crack to figure out where she was, a handful of blurry figures came into view. This whole scenario seemed so familiar to her…

“Oh…? I think our guest of honour is waking up” A familiar arrogant voice said from the group of blurry figures a few feet away.

“You leave her alone!” An echoing voice yelled out from the group of blurry figures.

“…Al…?” Barbara winced as she looked over in the direction of the voice, opening both her eyes ever so slightly to get a better focus on him. He was on his knees with his hands behind his back, and a man on either side of him making sure to keep him in place. 

“AL!” She shouted, springing up to her feet to run to his side. Only to fall down to her knees as the blood quickly rushed to her head, along with the pain that went through her skull. But she still kept trying to get up, all the while holding onto her throbbing head.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?” The arrogant voice snickered over in her direction.

“What…?” Barbara furrowed her brows confused by his statement. Until she got a good look at him “You….” Her eyes went wide as she recognized him. He was the tall lanky man with dark hair and glasses who was looming over her when… “YOU…!” Her eyes narrowed dangerously low before she bolted towards him yelling, “YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!” Before punching him square in the nose, knocking his glasses away onto the floor “What did you do to my Uncle?!!” She practically roared going in for another swing.

She would have punched him again if the two other men hadn’t rushed over, one punching her hard in the stomach. Stopping her dead in her tracks, the force of the blow had her coughing trying to catch her breath, making her go limp a few moments. It gave them enough time to grab onto her better so she couldn’t attack him again.

“BARB!!” Al cried out trying to escape his two captors. He was so angry that they dared lay a finger on her, and yet completely surprised by her actions. He has never seen her act that way before, but at the same time he understood why she was so angry, he seemed to know what happened to her uncle. Could he be…?

“Tch…” The man wiped his mouth from the bit of blood coming from it “I see you have your memory back” He slowly reached down and picked up his glasses from the floor, cleaning them before placing them back over his nose. Looking over at her and saw the fire in her eyes and couldn’t help but smile “Your Uncle had that same exact look in his eyes… before we beat him to a pulp”

“Bastard!!!” Barbara roared once again, trying to escape to beat the shit out of him. “You’re lying!! He would never have allowed-!”

“For his dear precious little Kitten, he would” He grinned, enjoying watching her squirm in anger. That was until she spit in his face all the while glaring deep holes into him “Was that really necessary?” He sighed annoyed starting to clean his glasses off.

“Don’t you DARE call me that again!” Barbara growled, all the while still trying to pull away from the two men’s firm grip on her. She was determined to break free to beat that smug look off his stupid face.

“Stop pissing her off, Kevin” One of the men holding her said, sounding a bit spooked.

“Kevin…?” Al recognized the name. It was the one Vlad had given them in the interrogation room! He was the mastermind behind all of this?

‘Kevin’ waved his hand nodding ever so slightly “Now… since you’ve regained your memory. I need you to do something for me” Barbara just glared at him without saying a word, allowing him to continue. “I need you to finish the array,” He pointed to the large half finished circle on the ground.

“That sad piece of craftsmanship over there you call an array?” Barbara couldn’t help but smirk as she could tell it was starting to make him angry. 

“How dare you…!” Kevin stormed over to her grabbing her by the chin, forcing her look up at him “You probably know it by heart, don’t you?! He probably showed you that array hundreds of times!” 

“Once” Barbara said calmly trying not to smile as he was clearly getting twitchy in anger at her.

“What…?!” Kevin stared at her in disbelief.

“He showed me that array once. You really suck at alchemy, don’t you?” Barbara now started to grin up at him as she clearly hit a nerve.

“You little-!!” Kevin looked about to smack her across the face but managed to compose himself “Just finish that damn array or he bites it!!” He pointed over to Al and the two men holding onto him.

“Don’t do what he wants, Barb! I’ll be fine!” Al tried to reassure her. He had no idea what this array he wanted her to draw was, but by the sounds it couldn’t be for anything good.

“Don’t you dare-!!” Barbara half snarled, almost freeing her arm to punch him again.

“We know all about his, ‘weak point’” Kevin spoke with that arrogant tone of voice, while one of the men pulled out a gun pressing it firmly on a certain spot on Al’s back armor piece.

Al tensed up a moment when the gun tapped against his blood seal, how did they know? They couldn’t possibly know!

“You can’t! If you do that then-!!” Barbara’s eyes went wide as she started to protest.

“Well, we all know your decision, don’t we?” Kevin couldn’t contain the grin creeping over his lips. He had outwitting her, no… he outwitted the so-called ‘great alchemist’. Kevin knew she would never let anything happen to Al. She was so much like… him.

Barbara went silent clenching her fists in anger, she was so mad she was trembling. She couldn’t let anything happen to Al “If you hurt him, I swear…” She looked up at Kevin with narrowed eyes, that same fire that he saw in her Uncles “… I’ll END you”

“I highly doubt it” Kevin smiled turning around taking a few steps away “I’m the one holding all the cards” He turned around and nodded to the two larger men holding her, to let her go. “Just keep an eye on her, she won’t be much trouble”

“Are you sure…?” One of the men spoke sounding unsure.

“She did a number on my arm last time!” The other protested, moving his left arm out to show the now scar on his bicep.

“She can’t finish the array with the two of you holding onto her!” Kevin snapped, “We can’t get back home until it’s finished!”

“Finished…? Go home?” Al muttered to himself just what were they talking about? Why did they need an array to go home? This was all confusing. Just what was going on, and just who was she and this uncle of hers? 

The two men looked down at Barbara again hesitating before releasing her, taking a step back from her. Once they let go she gave them both a glare and rolled back her shoulders.

“Wouldn’t of had to stab you with a fire poker if you weren’t in the house in the first place” Barbara grumbled, walking over to the sad attempt at an alchemy array. “I have to start from scratch” She said with a sigh while rolling up her sleeves.

“What??” Kevin stared at her “What’s wrong with what I have?! How long will it be to change-“

“You want this done properly or not?” Barbara turned to shoot him a glare from over her shoulder.

Kevin let out an hmph, crossing his arms annoyed. How dare she belittle his work like that?! “Javier, Xander! Clean up the array so she can start from ‘scratch.’” The two men grumbled while they did as they were told.

Al couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Barbara was acting JUST like his older brother! Her personality almost did a complete one eighty from her previous one. Sure she had a few moments when they acted alike, but this was spot on. He watched her turn to look over at him, and gave him a gentle reassuring smile, as if she knew everything was going to be all right. 

“No funny business either, little missy.” Xander grumbled handing her some chalk after they were finished erasing the other array.

“I’m not a child.” Barbara rolled her eyes snatching the chalk from him “Just don’t get in my way.” She looked down at the floor, taking in a deep breath before starting to draw the large array. She didn’t want to do as Kevin ordered, but she just couldn’t risk getting Al hurt, or worse…. and to be perfectly honest she was kind of scared and was just trying to act tougher than normal.

\---

A few hours past and she was still drawing the array, Kevin was starting to get impatient. He was pacing back and forth and would look over at her every few minutes. It couldn’t take this long to draw out something she knows so much more about!?

“What’s taking so long?!” Kevin stormed over to her. “You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you? You must be stalling!” He almost grabbed her arm roughly but managed to clench his fist instead.

“You want this done right or not?!” Barbara growled not even looking up from the array she was working on. “Everything has to be precise you know. If something is even a little tiny bit off and out of place it could end in disaster. You should know this if you are a so called expert in alchemy now.”

Kevin went silent a few moments just watching her working on the array so intently. The pair of them were so much alike, her Uncle and Barbara. They shared the exactly same determined look on their faces as he was forced to create the first array. “Still say you’re stalling.” He crossed his arms as he continued to observe her work.

“Called doing it right, dumbass.” Barbara muttered trying to ignore him. He was on her last nerve, hovering over her like that. If it weren’t for the fact they had Al, she would have beaten his sorry ass to a bloody pulp. He didn’t have any fighting experience that she could tell; now the other handful of goons might. Thankfully she had enough for her to get by, least she hoped anyway, and to tell the truth she actually was stalling as much as she possibly could. The others must have found out where they were taken by now, and would come to save them soon. 

“Why do you need her to draw this array so badly for?” Al couldn’t help himself from asking, he was curious on what was going on and he wanted to keep him away from Barbara as he didn’t like how he was watching her.

“To get back home” Kevin said simply, looking over at Al.

“Huh…? What do you mean get back home?” Al was actually getting a little angry with all of this weird, almost code like speak. Why does getting home involve an alchemy array…?

“Hmm… I suppose I can tell you, doubt you’ll remember anyway.” Kevin spoke sounding so sure of himself.

Al was taken aback by his words, what did he mean, ‘doubt you’ll remember anyway’? Of course he’d remember what he told him! Just why wouldn’t he? This Kevin seems to have a few screws loose…

“Spoken like a true villain.” Barbara piped up with a snort “Having to tell the ‘hero’ slash ‘captive’ your master plan before getting on with it.” She stopped a moment to observe her work to make sure she was on the right track.

“As I was saying…” Kevin sighed pushing his glasses up and walked over to Al “This array is to get back home, to ‘our world’”

“Your… world…? What do you mean?” Al looked up at Kevin, watching him tap his helmet with his fingers. This made Barbara growl from the circle and threw a piece of chalk at Kevin’s head, hitting him dead on.

“Don’t touch him!!” She practically snarled wanting to move over to beat the snot out of Kevin, but didn’t move. Just glared more deep holes into him, knowing if she tried anything they’d hurt Al. She could feel her hands shaking making her clench them into a fist tightly not to let them know she was afraid, she had to be strong… but if only she was stronger. 

Kevin rubbed the back of his head and glanced back at her before looking back at Al “Yes, our world. Or home if you prefer.” He started to walk around Al as he continued. “I guess you can see this array as a portal of sorts, from my world to yours and vise versa.” He puffed out his chest while starting to grin. “With this new found knowledge of Alchemy it will be a cinch to dominate the world! Well our world anyway.” Kevin had a weird gleam in his eyes before laughing like a lunatic “No one will be able to stop us!!”

“You have some holes in your plan.” Barbara said from a few feet away, sounding unbearably annoyed at him.

“What do you mean ‘holes’?” Kevin practically snarled, turning on his heel to glare at her.

“For one, your completely bat shit insane. Two, you do realize you have do an over haul on the arrays for them to even work in our world? Three, Uncle, Pop, and I won’t allow you to do such a thing.” Barbara stood up to get a higher view on her work, making sure everything was correctly drawn. Sometimes she hated how much of a perfectionist she was and at the same time she didn’t want to mess it up on purpose and getting caught in the middle of it.

“Those two old men?!” Kevin laughed loudly thinking the idea was ridiculous. “I doubt they’ll be much trouble after we’re finished with them. Besides… none of you would do anything that would endanger the other.” He smirked knowing full well that hit a nerve as he saw her flinch. “As long as we have one of you captive the others will do what we say.”

Al could only stare at Kevin wondering if the man had indeed gone insane as all of this sounded too crazy to be true. Another world that could be connected to one another by an alchemy array sounded and was preposterous. But Barbara was being serious when mentioning their world, just how could this be possible? 

“Kevin… you’re going way too far with this” Javier spoke as he really didn’t want to be a part of this anymore; Kevin was really starting to give him the creeps.

“We didn’t agree to help you to become some psycho path!” Xander shouted, “Breaking and entering was one thing, world domination is completely different!” 

“Shut up! You two will do as I say!” Kevin screamed at them, making the pair of them go silent at his sudden outburst “And YOU!!” He spun around pointing at Barbara “Finish that damn array already!!”

“You’ll let Al go after it’s finished, right?” Barbara didn’t even bother looking at Kevin as she spoke. That damn bastard thought he knew it all and it was really starting to piss her off. 

“Yes, yes whatever” Kevin huffed, waving his hand slightly to the side.

“Where are they…?” Barbara thought while glancing around the abandoned warehouse, she saw no sign of them. She sighed turning towards Kevin, moving her arm out to motion at the array on the floor. “Then let him go, I’ve finished”

“Oh?” Kevin walked over to see if she was indeed telling the truth. “What’s this…?” The array was finished, but it was different, did she expect to pull a fast one on him?! “This isn’t the same array!”

“I had to fix it” Barbara crossed her arms looking at him like he was stupid. Did he honestly learn alchemy while he was here? Yes this wasn’t exactly what he was used too, but he should still understand the basics behind it.

“What…?!” Kevin stared at her, his face getting red with anger. At every turn she belittled him and his work at every chance she got! How dare she claim he was stupid, he came up with this brilliant idea to come to this world to gain the knowledge on how to use alchemy and master it before heading back to theirs to take over. 

“I had to change the array, dumbass” Barbara sighed as she couldn’t believe she had to explain this to him; he really was an amateur. “I had to change it so it would work in this world, the way it should have been drawn. Did you really think the other way would have?” She started to grin seeing the blank look on his face “Why do you think it took me so long? You don’t have a clue how alchemy works at all, do you?” 

“Don’t mock me!” Kevin snapped moving his arm to slap her across the face.

A red blur seemed to appear out of nowhere and landed right in front of Barbara. Blocking hit from Kevin, and returned the favor with his automail fist. Sending him flying a few feet away landing on his ass. “Don’t think so, asshole!”

“E-Ed…!” Barbara gasped out in surprise, not that she didn’t think he wouldn’t save her, but it was still such a surprise for him to appear out of nowhere like that.

“Brother!” Al called out to him feeling a thousand more times relieved that he had finally arrived.

Kevin wiped the blood from his mouth, yet again as he lifted himself up off the floor. “I was wondering if I would get the chance to meet you before leaving.” He was a bit pleased as he did, and also annoyed as he hoped to have been gone long ago.

Ed shifted his head from side to side letting out a crack as he made a blade with his automail, pointing it towards Kevin while making sure to stand between him and Barbara. “Well lucky for you I showed up then.” He glanced behind himself at Barbara before glancing over at Al. “Are you two okay?”

“I’m alright.” Al nodded over Ed after glancing at the two men who still had a hold onto him. One of which still had a gun pressed against his array on his back.

“Yeah… a lot better now.” Barbara nodded, smiling relieved that Ed had shown up when he did. 

“How touching, a family reunion” Kevin rolled his eyes, patting off the dirt from his clothes. “Now if you don’t mind we must be heading home and you can return to… whatever mission you are currently on.” He adjusted his glasses for the second time that day and placed them back onto his face.

“Fat chance!” Ed growled, glaring darkly at Kevin as he took note of all the guys in the room. “No one is going anywhere!!” He noticed the large alchemy array on the floor under his feet and Barbara standing in the middle of it. What in the hell is going on here?!

“If you haven’t noticed, you are outnumbered and we have your precious little brother captive so you are in no position to be giving us orders, Edward.” Kevin couldn’t bring himself to call him by his State Alchemist title. “Thooough….” He tapped his chin a moment pretending to think while starting to smirk. “We could however do a trade, your brother for her.” He pointed over at Barbara making her flinch slightly. “Then everyone goes home happy and can continue on with our lives.”

“FUCK YOU!”

“NO WAY!”

Barbara blinked slightly confused at just how protective Ed and Al were being over her. Not that they haven’t been the whole time they have been together, but they are so determined to keep her safe no matter what, just what she wants for them. 

Kevin sighed heavily as he shrugged his shoulders. “I should have known that was to be your answer. Well shall we get onto it then?” He started to smirk as he watched Ed and Barbara’s eyes go wide as one of his men tapped Al’s blood seal on his back.

Before Ed or Barbara could respond, a bullet went through the goon’s hand making him yelp in pain as he dropped the gun and clutched his hand against his chest.

“That is far enough!” Hawkeyes voice practically boomed in the warehouse making everyone look over towards the source. She had her gun raised ready to shoot at the next chance she got.

Roy was standing at her side not looking all that happy while the rest of the team was scattered around everyone, guns pointed in their direction. They had them surrounded.

“Everyone!” Barbara couldn’t help but smile relieved seeing everyone, she knew everything would be okay now. Made her wonder if Ed got impatient and rushed in before everyone else was ready, though… Kevin was about to hit her and she knew he wouldn’t allow that to happen. This made her smile softly at the thought.

“We can do this the easy way…” Roy started to speak as he adjusted his glove “…or the hard way, your choice” 

Javier and Xander placed their arms up immediately into the air. They were done with all of this and didn’t want to be a part of it any longer. 

“You idiots! What are you doing?!” Kevin yelled at them, before spinning around to look at the other two near Al “Don’t just stand there! Use the alchemy we’ve learned to get rid of them!”

“We’re through with this, Kevin.” Javier gave a deep sigh and knelt down onto the ground, moving his hands onto his head. “We refuse to hurt anyone else under your insanity”

“My Brother and I didn’t sign up for this stupid shit.” Xander snorted following suit with his brother “We gladly except whatever punishment they throw at us.”

“Looks like your hired help is crumbling” Roy smirked watching the two near Al looking at one another nervously, unsure of what to do.

“Hmph a minor setback” Kevin huffed lowly a bit annoyed his plan isn’t going quite the way it was supposed to. “I also have friends, one of which you all know quite well.” He moved his arm out and a familiar gruff looking man came out of the shadows with a large grin on his face.

“VLAD?!” 

“How did?!” Roy stared in shock as he would have been informed about Vlad escaping right away.

Barbara froze as Vlad smiled slightly evilly over in her direction, sending a shiver down her spine which made her start to shake. No, no she had to be strong! She wasn’t alone with that creep after her this time.

“Guess this means the hard way.” Ed snorted. “Alright whose first?!” He made sure to stay in front of Barbara not wanting anyone near her.

Al took the small window of opportunity to break free from his captures as the gun was removed from his back and everyone’s attention was towards Vlad. He flipped the one who was clutching his hand, after Hawkeye shot through it, over in front of himself into the hard floor. Before grabbing the other by the arm and twisting it back so hard it made him fall to his knees in pain. 

Kevin decided to snap his own fingers and grinned in almost glee as a lighting spark erupted from them and towards Roy. If Ed wasn’t standing so close to Barbara he would have sent it towards him instead. 

Roy dodged it easily and made sure Hawkeye moved along with him as he snapped his fingers in return sending a large flame back at Kevin who just managed to dodge it and got his jacket caught on fire making him quickly take it off and stomp it out. He smirked amused for a moment and went to snap his fingers again to set him on fire this time as he was currently distracted with his coat. 

Vlad however had other ideas and sent a spike like trap in Roy’s direction making him use his alchemy to destroy it. He growled loudly over at Kevin as he was partly annoyed at how he really wasn’t that great of a fighter or alchemist, and to let him know he was wide open for attacks. He then rushed towards Ed with his swords and grinned when Ed blocked his attack.

“Don’t even think about it!!” Ed snarled, pushing him back with his blade and went to kick him in the stomach but Vlad jumped back just before he could. 

Barbara took a step back not quite sure what she should be doing and she definitely didn’t want to get in the way of the others fighting. Maybe she should run off to the side to stay out of the way? She wasn’t exactly an experienced fighter like everyone else was in the room. 

Vlad grunted as he dodged another of Ed’s attacks and turned towards where Barbara was hoping to grab her and use her as a hostage. His orders were not to kill her, said nothing about hurting her.

Ed noticed his gaze and snarled loudly. “Not so fast!” He rushed towards Vlad and quickly stopped in his tracks.

Barbara let out a surprised yelp as Vlad suddenly grabbed her and tugged her against his chest, moving one of her arms behind her back tightly as he moved a sword to her throat. She could feel herself starting to shake as he held her like that. “C-C-Can’t we just t-t-talk about this?” She stuttered out trying to remember to breathe.

Vlad grinned evilly at Ed as Barbara was shaking like a leaf; his prey was still petrified of him which made him quite happy. He purposely moved his head to sniff at Barbara’s hair to get a reaction out of Ed.

Ed’s eye twitched, watching Vlad being a creep and the fact he wasn’t quick enough to stop him from grabbing her. “Let her go, asshole!!” He tried to think of how to get her away from him without getting her hurt in the process.

Kevin made his way towards them as he sent over a dozen lightning bolts in Roy’s direction to distract him so he could get to the circle. “Good job, Vlad!” He beamed, giving Ed a grin and moving to the array and clapping his hands over it to activate it, but nothing happened. “What…?!” He clapped his hands to do the same thing but still nothing! Did she pull a fast one on him?!

Vlad glanced down at Kevin wondering what the buffoon was doing now as nothing was happening when he was trying to activate the weird array. Looks like he should make his escape, he did get paid in advance after all and he wasn’t about to get thrown into jail again for an array that doesn’t work.

Ed glanced at Barbara who was biting her lip and looking back at him still frightened. This was his chance to free her from that damn creep as he wasn’t looking at him. He nodded at her before quickly clapping his hands as he rushed towards them, grabbing Vlad’s sword to melt it so it couldn’t hurt her.

Barbara quickly ducked down best she could after the sword was gone, he still had a firm grip on her arm as Ed moved to punch Vlad hard in the face with his automail fist, making him stumble back. Thankfully he let Barbara go in the process so she could slip out from his grip and half fell onto the floor as she was still shaking a lot more than she liked to admit.

“Son of a bitch!” Ed snarled loudly, pushing the man onto the ground and started to beat the man to a pulp, yet again. He didn’t have all of the bandages, but the man was still clearly not fully healed as he took him down so easily.

“Don’t kill him-I-I mean just… Ed!” Barbara moved to tug Ed slightly off of Vlad so he didn’t beat him into a bloody pulp. Not that the man didn’t deserve it, though she didn’t realize he already beat the snot out of him the first time they encountered one another as she was in pain from the bear trap around her ankle. 

“I wasn’t gonna!” Ed huffed, glaring down at Vlad and kicked him one last time to make sure he was knocked out. Then remembered the array they were standing in, “What the hell is…?!” He quickly tugged Barbara out of the array with him still not sure what it is for yet, but he wasn’t going to stick around inside it and find out.

Kevin was still trying to activate the array but every time he clapped his hands and pressed it against the chalk outlines of the array nothing happened. He had no idea why this was happening, she had to of done something to make it not work! But she was so adamant on doing everything right, just like her uncle, so why?! He glanced over to glare at her and soon realized all his men were either being cuffed or being held down, even Vlad was down for the count. It was just him now. This made him annoyed how his plan was crumbling around him. He was so close…! If only he could activate the array he would be home free. He decided to try and make a break for it while everyone was preoccupied with keeping his men down for the count.

Kevin didn’t even get six feet away before a few warning shots were fired at him, along with a large wall of fire appearing to block his exit. 

“Not getting away that easily, Kevin.” Roy half snarled, getting ready to snap his fingers again to burn the man to a crisp.

“We need him alive, sir.” Hawkeye said, making sure Javier and Xander were cuffed up properly though they clearly turned themselves in for their crimes.

Kevin refused to lose to them. He absolutely refused to lose! Glancing around quickly, he spotted Barbara still near the array. Ed was still close to her but he had an idea. An evil like grin crept over his lips before he bolted towards her. Sending a few lightning strikes out towards everyone to keep them distracted, especially at Ed to get him to move away from her and vise versa and as he got closer he grabbed something out of his pocket. 

“Barbara, look out!!” 

Barbara didn’t get the chance to really react, only managed to turn to face him. Next thing she, and everyone else knew, he had shoved her hard into the array. Kevin’s back was faced towards them and all they could see was Barbara’s face over his shoulder.

Everything almost seemed to be running in slow motion; everyone had gone silent, almost not daring to breathe. That was until Kevin moved his right arm out quickly, and viciously to the side, a trail of blood followed it splattering across the room. 

Barbara let out a shaky breath she didn’t realize she was holding in, a rush of pain came from her left side. She didn’t know he had really stabbed her until he hauled out the knife, out along her side. She couldn’t help but slouch against Kevin’s shoulder, her vision was starting to blur “Uncle…” 

“I finally figured it out…” Kevin said just loud enough for everyone to hear “…You’re the key”

Ed’s eyes widen in horror, seeing her slump against him, and her eyes slowly darkening. She was looking in his direction; blood trickled down her side dripping onto the floor “KITTEN!!” He found himself screaming, making mad dash for them.

But it was too late, the array suddenly activated, turning a bright blue for a mere moment before it changed to a deep blood red. By the time Ed made it to the edge of the array, it had already vanished along with the pair of them inside the circle.

“No….” Ed fell to his knees, eyes wide in shock they were gone… “No, no, no, no!!” He cried slamming his fists against the floor. It wasn’t fair! Why did everyone seem to die around them?! And just why did it feel like his heart was breaking in two!? He HAD to get her back! Without even thinking he clapped his hands together and was about to place them down onto the array in front of him.

“EDWARD!” Roy called out to him, grabbing Ed by the shoulders spinning him around to face him. Ed’s eyes were welling up with tears

“N-No let me go!” Ed cried out trying to escape Roy’s grasp “I have to get her back!”

“Edward…!” Roy pulled him into a tight hug “You’re not the only one who is upset!” He heard a choked gasp from Ed in his arms “You just can’t…. you can’t bring her back. I’m sorry, but the wound… it was too deep…” He felt himself hugging Ed even tighter, feeling his eyes welling up with tears.

“I-It’s not fair!!!” Ed cried, burying his face into his shirt. The tears just seemed to overflow out of him on their own accord.

“I know it’s not…” Roy could feel his voice crack as he spoke, tugging Ed in closer as he hid his face in his shoulder. 

“….” 

Hawkeye placed a gentle hand on Al’s arm, trying to comfort him in some way. She could only imagine he was just as upset, he was standing so still and small sniffling like noises were coming from the armor as she could feel and see his whole body shaking.

Everyone else stayed silent while glancing at one another, they couldn’t believe she was gone just like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this chapter and all the previous ones :D
> 
> Sorry for the cliff hanger! Wasn't my intention... I don't think? ^^;;; Don't worry I will be continuing this! I will do my best to not leave it on a cliff hanger for so long.


	11. Chapter 11

Kevin ended up stumbling into a white void making him glance around confused as he didn’t see this place the last time traveling between worlds. Why was he now here…? His eyes suddenly went wide as he realized the reason and went to make a mad dash to the other door.

He didn’t get that far though, something grabbed onto his ankle making him almost trip and fall face first onto the white flooring. He whirled his head around to see just what had grabbed his foot and his eyes went wide once again seeing who it was.

Barbara was holding onto his ankle tightly as possible, glaring at him with her teeth clenched. “You stupid….!” She hissed at him through the pain, she was laying in a pool of her own blood that coming from the wound he inflicted on her side. 

Long black arms slowly were making their way towards them. Kevin had just managed to see what looked like Vlad being brought inside it, making it squeal in glee. “N-No! You want her!! SHE IS THE ONE DYING!!!” He yelled loudly, reaching down to get her to let him go. This was a bit of a drawback now that she would be taken away like this and he couldn’t use her as a hostage, but he rather live!

Barbara winced slightly as those same black arms and hands had grabbed onto her foot in order to tug her towards them. “The one going in that is YOU!”

“No! You’re the one who is going into it so I can escape!! Equivalent exchange!” Kevin almost screamed at her all the while trying to pry her hands off of himself, she has quite the strong grip for someone bleeding out.

“Mother fu-“ Barbara’s words were cut short as she coughed up some blood while being pulled along the floor, making Kevin half stumble trying to stay upright. “D-Don’t you DARE talk about Equivalent exchange!!” She yelled loudly as she managed to pull him down onto the floor with her. Grabbing him roughly by his collar; slamming his head as hard as she could onto the white floor all the while glaring deep holes into him. “You just HAD to learn the hard way!” She could feel her hands shaking as she gripped onto his neck. “YOU DO NOT MESS WITH AN ELRIC!!” And with that she used the very last bit of her strength to move his sorry ass into the pile of hands coming for them, which they all happily accept with glee.

“Nooooo!” Kevin screamed like a small child as he was pulled inside, still trying to grab onto anything to no avail and was quickly silenced once he was brought fully inside.

Barbara curled up into a ball with her arms wrapped around her waist, knowing she didn’t have much time left. “U-Uncle…. I’m sorry….” She could feel the tears stinging her eyes and threatening to escape. 

What she didn’t realize was the hands that had a hold of her legs, let go of her and retreated along with the rest inside the door. When they closed a white outlined figure appeared standing just outside, observing her for a few moments before speaking. “What do we have here?” They half cooed quite curious by the whole ordeal.

“What…? Who…?” Barbara opened her eyes, which she didn’t realize had closed to look towards the voice, having to blink a few times to get who it was in focus. She stared a bit wide eyed a moment not sure if she was hallucinating from the lack of blood.

This made him laugh and smile a bit like a Cheshire cat. “You are indeed seeing me as I am, Barbara.” He smiled all the more as she stared at him a bit confused.

“Wait, how do you know who I am…?” Barbara lifted her head best she could to see him better, which wasn’t a whole lot better as she could barely move now. “N-never mind…. Are….. Are you Truth…?” She furrowed her brow at him as her Uncle did speak of him, it…? Once.

“So he has told you of me? Then you know what I am about to ask don’t you?” He continued to smile down at her curious for her reply. 

“I….” She paused, biting her lip slightly and resting her head back onto the floor as she couldn’t keep her head up any longer. “Just… I want Uncle and Pop t-to go back to where t-they belong, to…. to get a second chance to live the l-life they should have had.” Her head was getting foggier by the minute and she was feeling numb all over. Her voice was coming up shaky now. “If…. If you need me, go ahead…” She smiled slightly, feeling the tears now escaping from her eyes. “I… I want them to be happy and…. and Uncle to finally have his special someone.”

Truth was taken aback a moment wondering if she had realized he was going to use the two earlier to help her live, not for her to sacrifice herself for her Uncle and Grandfather. Perhaps it was from the lack of blood? She thought she was too far gone to be saved? Or…. Was it something else? Humans were a curious bunch, tending to surprise him now and again. 

~----- 

“Ugh....”

Ed slowly sat up into a sitting position, holding onto his head a bit disoriented not sure where he was at the moment. “Feels like a truck hit me....” He half groaned, his chest and the rest of his body felt so sore.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Came a voice from a pile of rubble not too far away from where Ed was sitting.

“It’s just an expression, Al.” Ed smiled sheepishly, rubbing his head a bit as he glanced over to where he heard Al’s voice and saw the back of his head behind a pile of rubble.

“Knowing you, and I do it wouldn’t surprise me if one had.” Al sighed, looking over in the direction of Ed’s voice. He was a bit annoyed and concerned all at once.

“It is an expression! Really! I never got hit by one.” He nodded and decided not to mention about getting hit by a car once... maybe twice.

“Right...” Al narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously before sighing and took a look around. “Where are we...? And what exactly happened? I can’t quite remember... it is all fuzzy” He frowned a moment before slowly standing with a low grunt. His whole body felt a bit tingly, like a limb waking up after it fell asleep. 

“Heh... and dunno? It looks familiar though, pretty sure we have been here before.” Ed wrinkled his nose in thought a moment. He knew this place... why can’t he remember? Was his memory going now? Suddenly his eyes went wide and sprang to his feet. “KITTEN!!” 

Al jumped as Ed suddenly yelled without a warning, placing a heart to his chest. He was going to give him a heart attack one of these days. “Ed what-“ 

“Al they took her!” Ed cut Al off and stormed over to him to grab his arms to shake him slightly. “We have to find her NOW, those assholes disappeared with her and I will kill them once I find them!” 

“E...Ed...?”

Ed turned his head around quickly as he was still very worked up to see who said his name and stared at her a good few moments, was it really? “...Winry...?”

“Is.... is it really you?” Winry’s voice came out a bit shaky as her eyes started to fill with tears.

“Yeah it’s me-er us. I mean, we probably look totally different and you look the same-“ Ed started to say before realizing she was about to cry. 

“D-Don’t cry!” Ed exclaimed, rushing over to her as he hated to see her upset.

“W-Winry really it’s alright please don’t cry.” Al rushed over along with Ed hoping they could calm her down so she didn’t get too upset. Least they were happy tears...? He hoped.

Two low barks were heard as they reached Winry making them both look down to see Den very happy to see them along with another black dog at her other side. 

“Colonel...?” Ed blinked, crouching down to see him better as he looked a bit smaller than usual and then fell onto his ass as the pup jumped at him to lick his face all over. “H-hey! Don’t drown me!” He laughed, trying to push the dog off of himself.

“Colonel...?” Winry blinked before chuckling lowly. “S-So he is yours? I was just putting out some laundry and then this black blur came bounding over scaring me and Den. No wonder he was so adamant about me following him.” She smiled softly still wondering if she was indeed dreaming. If she was dreaming she didn’t want to wake up.

“What a good boy Colonel!” Ed grinned, giving him a good ruffle and earned happy noises from the pup. “Though you seem smaller...“ He noticed how his collar was quite loose around his neck. Not to mention he didn’t seem to have grey around his muzzle anymore, huh...

Al took Winry’s hand and squeezed it gently noticing her biting her lip ever so slightly. “You aren’t dreaming, least... I don’t think we are?”

“I-I hope not.” Winry gave Al a small smile and squeezed his hand in return. “But... how, how did you get back? I thought you closed the gate?”

“I did... I-“ Ed paused a moment before springing to his feet for the second time that day. “Kitten! Shit! Winry did you see anyone else come from here??”

Winry shook her head not sure why Ed was suddenly so upset. “No you are the only ones I have seen today, why?”

“But we came from here they had to have too.... dammit” Ed growled, clenching his fists making Colonel nuzzle his leg to try and calm him down. “We need to get to Central, now!”

“We will explain on the way.” Al reassured Winry as he squeezed her hand again, and gently turning her around to head back to her house. 

~-----

“Are these people bad...?” Winry asked as they walked back to the house so they could get what they needed before heading to central. She knew it was a stupid question as Ed was very agitated along with Al who was furrowing his brows.

“Very...” Ed growled, clenching his fists again. “They want to take over the world or some bull shit nonsense. I know as he told me, but he rattled on like an arrogant asshole and I half blocked him out.” Plus they did get the jump on him and Colonel so they got in a few lucky punches. “They also took kitten along with them.... I swear if they fucking hurt her.” He growled, looking down at the ground to glare deep holes into it. 

“Ed... we will find her, just try not to get too worked up old man.” Al teased lightly hoping to get Ed to laugh or something. Taking over the world sounded strangely familiar to him, felt as if he has heard that before... but from where?

“They don’t sound friendly at all... and whose kitten?” Winry turned to face them before opening the door. 

“She’s my niece, Al’s granddaughter.” Ed nodded, rubbing the back of his neck not sure how she will react to hearing that. She didn’t seem all that worried about them not exactly looking the same as she remembered them. Though.... she looks exactly the same, wouldn’t she be older like them?

Winry stared at them both as if they were crazy. They looked no older than she was! How could Al have a granddaughter?! “Nice try, but I don’t believe that for a moment.” She huffed lowly, opening the door to the house and walking in.

“But it’s true! Just look at us we aren’t exactly young anymore.” Ed grumbled, hating to admit he got old and moved inside after her with Al in toe.

“Riiiiight, you look the same age as me and I just turned twenty.” Winry rolled her eyes. “If she is someone special to you just say so not lie. Geez.”

“What do you mean the same age as you?” Al paused in the small hallway and glanced over at Ed who happened to be standing next to the small mirror hanging on the wall and saw his reflection. “W-What...?”

“But she isn’t! Winry she is my niece and Al’s grandkid- Al?” Ed waved his hand in front of his face twice before Al grabbed his face to turn it to face the mirror. “What the shit?!”

There in the mirror they clearly saw their younger selves staring back at them with wide eyes, they each moved a hand to their cheek and their reflection did the same. How was this possible?! Why were they suddenly young again?? Also how did they not notice they were younger earlier by looking at each other?!

“.... Brother.... I got a bad feeling about it.” Al swallowed as his stomach quickly started to twist into knots.

“I don’t either, Al... I don’t either. We need to get to central Pronto!” What the hell was going on?!

 

~ ----

“I can’t believe what you two have told me...” Winry frowned while following after the two Elric’s who were walking as quickly as possible towards HQ after they arrived in Central. “...But at the same time I do, is that weird...?” She felt it was indeed weird, but alchemy was most certainly head spinning and strange events have happened from it.

“We still aren’t quite sure how it all happened either.” Al sighed slightly and really hoped they could find her in time, if anything happened to her... his chest tightened at the thought. Would be like the second time if...

Ed remained quiet as he was thinking hard on what had happened, how were they suddenly young again after coming back? Not to mention it was only two years since he last came back and then left with Al. Time traveling wasn’t possible.... was it? He frowned a bit more and had an uneasy feeling about all of this. The gate had been closed between the worlds, so this couldn’t be possible! Colonel gently head butted his leg to try and calm him down as they walked. If he wasn’t so worked up it would be helping. 

They soon arrived at the building and Ed walked in as if he owned the place with Al and Winry in toe. They didn’t get in too far when two men blocked their path.

“Sorry but civilians cannot advance any further without going to the front desk.” One of the taller men motioned towards the desk in mention while the other crossed his arms with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“I don’t have time for this bull shit-“ Ed started but soon paused as he recognized the pair of them. “Wait a damn minute aren’t you two?!” He exclaimed pointing at them making the one with the raised eyebrow burst out laughing.

“Well, shit. It looks like the pipsqueak grew a bit, maybe an inch.” He teased, starting to grin wider as he could see Ed starting to fume.

Before Ed could start yelling at them with one of his, who you calling short! Rants, Al interrupted him. “I’m not sure who you two are, but we need to get inside to see Roy Mustang immediately.”

“Suppose it’s been a couple of years and you don’t remember us. Ed sure does though.” The other chuckled and gave them a small smile. “We didn’t exactly know each other on good terms at the time. I’m Javier and this is my brother Xander.”

Al’s eyes went wide at the pair of them; they were two of the guys who were working with Kevin! But they did quickly surrender as they stated they were tired of everything Kevin was doing. “But how- you two are in the military now?” Wait a second..! Kevin! That’s why what Ed said earlier sounded familiar! It’s something that crazy guy told him before...

“We did our time and we didn’t make a fuss about anything we gladly accepted whatever punishment they had for us. Think they were so surprised by it and saw we weren’t terrible people, just stupid in following Kevin.” Xander wrinkled his nose at the thought of that jerk. He hoped that asshole was gone for good.

“It also felt right to go into the military after, you know? I did always want to help people. Just... made some bad decisions...” Javier smiled slightly, rubbing the back of his head.

“But wait... how did you two get back and-“ 

“Uuuugh! Look we don’t have time for this right now we need to find Roy NOW!!” Ed cut him off, glaring a bit darkly up at the taller man. Narrowing his eyes further after he burst out laughing at him, did he think he was being funny?! HE WAS IN A HURRY!!

“Alright, alright. Go on Fullmetal.” Xander saluted with a grin and nudged his brother in the side to get him to do the same.

That was a title Ed hasn’t heard in ages, was kind of nice in a way... No! No time to be all nostalgic about the past! They had to hurry! “BETTER.” He half growled, glaring at them one more time before moving quickly down the hallway with Al, Winry, and Colonel at his heels.

Ed slammed open the door once they arrived at the office yelling, “WHERE’S MUSTANG?!” while stepping inside.

Everyone in the room turned, obviously from such a loud bang along with Ed’s booming voice. “ED?! AL?!” Everyone in the office exclaimed at the same time in shock and surprise. 

“Brother honestly...” Al let out an exasperated sigh while following after with Winry behind him, she waved a bit at everyone inside. “I’m worried too, but that poor door...” He was sure it was about to fall off the hinges at any moment now. 

Ed let out a hmph as Colonel looked around the room curiously, sniffing the air. “Look, is that bastard in or not?! It’s important!” Don’t get him wrong, it was wonderful to see everyone again, just they had an emergency!

“He’s in his office, but-“ Hawkeye started, but was quickly cut off as Ed stormed past her towards Roy’s door. 

This time Ed kicked open the door before entering. “MUSTANG!!”

Al sighed heavily, slumping his shoulders at his brother’s behaviour. “S-Sorry” He apologized while bowing his head and following after Ed and Colonel.

Roy nearly jumped out of his skin as his back was towards the door. His eyes went wide when he saw the source. “F-Fullmetal...?!” How he- Wait Al did is here too?!

“You have to help us find-“ Ed started to explain before he was cut off this time, by a loud happy child squeal.

Ed paused along with Al who just stopped to stand beside him. Colonel quickly started to wag his tail, letting out a low bark before moving over to the source of the squeal.

“Why does that...“ Al half mumbled as Ed picked up where he paused. “...squeal sound familiar...?”

“Mmmmaaa...!”

Next thing Roy knew, he was being shoved to the side as the Elric’s pushed him away. He almost fell onto his ass, but thankfully managed to keep his balance.

The brothers both paused at the couch, staring down at the four month old baby smiling up at them, reaching up with her tiny hands.

Al swallowed down the lump that had formed in his throat, slowly kneeling down before he ended up collapsing. She looks exactly like...

Ed fell to his knees in front of the couch, his eyes threatening to fill up with tears. He shakily moved his hand out towards her, she grabbed his finger before he couch get her hand.

“K....K-Kitten....?” Ed managed to choke out as his throat started to close up. Colonel moved to the other side of Ed, gently licking the babies other arm making her giggle. It couldn’t be her...

“S-She looks exactly like her w-when she was a baby” Al rubbed at his eyes as the tears were slowly starting to fall.

“When she was a baby...?” Roy blinked not sure what the brother’s were mumbling. “Wait... what do you mean? We only met her when she was sixteen.”

“What are you talking about?” Ed half snapped at Roy before he finally let out a small sniffle. Squeezing the baby’s tiny hand when she started to look upset at his tone. “S-Shh its okay. Sorry...” Gently he moved her fingers to see if it really was her, if she had the same birthmark on her pinky...

Al gasped along with Ed when sure enough, the same birthmark was found on her pinky. “H-How is this possible? D-Does it have anything to... to do with us suddenly being younger?” 

“You two aren’t making any sense...” Roy wanted to hug both Elric’s to comfort them; they were both very upset at the discovery. “I was just as surprised as you two, finding her suddenly on my desk. I found her birthmark first before.... before I noticed the large scar on her side.”

Both Elric’s snapped their attention at Roy, their eyes going wide. “What?!” They said in unison before looking at one another first then turning their attention back at the baby. Ed moved his hand up far enough for Al to move in to gently tug up the dress she was wearing. Sure enough, there was a deep scar on her left side. Where that asshole stabbed her.

“Kitten, n-no Barb is.... is our Barb?” Ed managed to say, his whole body starting to shake. Making the baby-no Barb squeeze his hand as Colonel nuzzled into his side. 

“S-She is.... she is Barb we met all those years ago? W-We didn’t name her after her in memory as she reminded us of her, s-she really is her.” Al managed to elaborate a bit more for everyone else who was now piled in the room.

Roy slowly moved in closer, still not exactly sure what the pair were talking about. “What do you mean...?” He was now very curious, what was this talk about it being Barbara and not them naming her after her?

Ed took in a deep breath, slowly moving into a sitting position before gently scooping the baby into his arms to hold. One of her tiny hands went into his hair as she seemed to be nuzzling his chin. “She... she is Al’s granddaughter, my grandniece.” He squeezed her gently, half burying his face into her hair.

There was a noticeable gasp from everyone in the room, everyone turned to look at each other before looking back at Ed and Al.

“W-When she was born we, we saw her tiny birthmark and she... she reminded us if Barb who had passed away all those years ago.” Al picked up where Ed stopped, noticing his brother was trying to hide the fact he was crying. “We had the same reaction then.” He managed to chuckle softly, squeezing Ed’s shoulder gently. “We just thought she was that worlds version of her a-as we found everyone else’s doppelganger there.”

Al closed his eyes a moment, taking in a shaky deep breath. “L-Looks like it really was her, a-and explains why she looked so much like us.”

“T-That bastard Kevin, he... he managed to travel back in time with her. Why didn’t I realize it...” Ed half mumbled to try and hide his voice from cracking. “T-The blood was how... how he traveled back in the first place. T-Then her blood again to go back but.... but something happened.”

Roy stared at them silently, taking in all of this information along with everyone else in the room. This was Barbara all these years ago, and she really was related to the Elric’s. “Now she is a baby and... you two are younger?” His chest tightened as he could now see Ed was crying, it pained him to see him and his brother so upset. 

“S-Seems that way.” Al managed a tiny smile, his stomach still in many knots. “Something happened at the gate, perhaps? But what did she do? Is it still.... still her?” 

Ed slowly moved Barb away from his chest, looking her deeply in the eyes. She stared back at him, moving a tiny hand to his cheek almost as if to pat it. Or wipe his tears away? “Y-You still in there...? Kitten, what did you do? W-Why would you do something so stupid for us?” What did she sacrifice for them? Her memory? Her lifespan? What did she do??

Barbara just blinked at him, moving her other hand to his other cheek. Patting it while making small bubbles in her mouth. 

“Not sure if we’ll ever know, Ed. S-She might still be in there, just.... I doubt she’ll remember what she did at the gate.” Al squeezed Ed’s shoulder, leaning in to rest his forehead against the side of Ed’s. This made Barbara move her tiny hand to his cheek to pat at too. He smiled softly at her as she patted his face. “Is... is this a second chance for all of us then...?”

“... I-I guess so...?” Ed didn’t think of that, but Al was married and has kids and grandkids. Not that he didn’t deserve having a second chance at life too. It is the one they should have had in the first place.

Roy managed to move closer, doing his best to give both Elric’s a hug from behind. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say, this was a lot to take in. “Just so you know, we are all here for you, alright?”

“Thank you...” Al nodded slightly; moving his free hand out to adjust Barb’s little dress. Which looked familiar to him...

Ed just managed a nod, moving Barb back into his arms after to squeeze her gently again. Then Colonel growled lowly at his side making him quickly turn to glare at him. “D-Don’t you fuckin start with your growling, Colonel...!”

Roy immediately moved his arms and finally spotted the black dog. “Colonel...? Wait, did you name the dog after me?” His chest tightened, but this time for another reason. Ed had missed him enough to name a dog after him.

“N-No! J-just a coincidence!” Ed turned his head away from Roy as he could feel the flush creeping on his cheeks. 

“Mmmmmmmaaapfft” Barbara blew louder bubbles and seemed to smile at him.

“D-Don’t you start...!” Ed huffed, making her giggle this time and pat at his face again. Is she really in there...? Was this her showing him she was? He really hoped she was... he adored her since the day she was born along with Al.

Finally laughter filled the room; a few sniffles were still heard though. Breda was hugging Fury back in comfort as Havoc was wiping his eyes with a tissue. 

Riza smiled softly seeing everyone was reunited, although in a strange manor. It was wonderful having the boys back safe and sound, with two new additions. One of which they had met before, just a different age.

Winry managed to finally move closer, kneeling down next to Al and taking his free hand into her own and squeezing it. “S-So s-she is your granddaughter... t-though not sure how that works now.” She spoke between sniffles. Taking a peek at the baby, giving her a tiny smile when she looked at her. “She is really cute.” Winry chuckled softly when the baby smiled at her.

“She is, she is... and maybe Ed’s daughter now?” Al smiled softly at Winry as he squeezed her hand back. “They have always been two peas in a pod.” He chuckled lowly, glancing back at Ed and Barb. “We have always been extremely close, but they were a bit closer. Should have known Ed secretly taught her alchemy, I had my suspicion as she mentioned drawing ‘pretty circles’ with Uncle.” He shook his head a bit.

Roy managed to hug Ed again from behind, giving him a tight squeeze and resting his chin on his shoulder. “I am honoured you named a dog after me.” He then lowered his voice to whisper into Ed’s ear. “I missed you too.” He smirked as he felt Ed shiver and laughed as he half glared at him, his face quite red.

“G-Good to know...!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> {Want to apologize again for how long this has taken me, life sure has its ups and downs. Thank you all for reading and hopefully sticking with this story though there has been a big gaps in-between, thanks so much~<3
> 
> I might have one or two chapters left after this :D Have some fluff after all of these feels.
> 
> Also sorry for not replying to comments! I read them all thank you~<3 I didn't realize how too at first as I was still fairly new with the site. I know most of your questions have been answered now hehe.}


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